Trojan girls take down undefeated Nikes in Burlington

Fairfield stretched its winning streak to seven after a road win over the previously undefeated Notre Dame Nikes 73-53 on Thursday night.

?It was a great road win versus a very good opponent,? said Fairfield head coach Mick Flattery. ?Our focus was tremendous. The girls along with our scout teams prepared well. We never gave [Notre Dame] many wide open looks and held them to 2-3 for three-pointers.?

Kylie Kurtz led the Trojans with 26 points, five deflections and two assists. Nicole Buch scored 24 points, collected three steals and three assists. Sami Fritz rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points. The senior also had 17 rebounds and six assists in the win.

Also scoring for Fairfield were Delaney Ridgway with six points, Ashtyn Drish had three points and Molly Ryan collected two points, four rebounds and two blocks.

?Defensively, we were tenacious,? said Flattery. ?We got every 50/50 loose ball, communicated well with each other and played with a lot of emotion. This was our last game before state pairings came out and we knew that if we won, it would really help our resume.?

The Trojans stayed at ninth in the Iowa Girls? High School Athletic Union rankings this week for 4A. Notre Dame also didn?t move from its No. 4 spot in class 1A behind Turkey Valley, Exira/Elk Horn-Kimbalton and Springville.

That may change next week as Fairfield again proved its mettle against a tough ranked foe in a road environment. The Trojans took down 4A No. 1 (at the time) Ballard in Cedar Rapids 43-38 at Rivalry Saturday on Jan. 9.

Four of Fairfield?s five losses this season came to ranked foes in West Branch, Pella, Cedar Rapids-Kennedy and Keokuk. The Trojans will again face off with Keokuk here in Fairfield on Feb. 5 in what could determine the conference championship. The Chiefs will play tonight at home against Washington in their final non-Fairfield Southeast Conference game.

If the Demons can pull the upset, Fairfield would have an opportunity to win the conference outright with a victory over Keokuk. Should the Chiefs win tonight, the Trojans would have to defeat Keokuk to share the conference title.

On Monday, the Trojans will host 7-10 Albia, who lost 46-40 to Davis County on Tuesday.