Trojans edge out Demons

The game was right there for the taking.

Despite trailing by as many as 13 points at the start of the fourth quarter, the Washington boys? basketball team had closed the gap against Fairfield at home on Friday night, and had their chances to take over.

Behind a crowd that seemed to come alive in that final eight minutes, the Demons went on a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to close the gap to a one-point game.

A Fairfield timeout with 2:45 to play led to back-to-back buckets for the Trojans, extending their lead to five points.

With a minute left, Washington?s Gage Redlinger nailed a 3-pointer, but two missed opportunities with under 30 seconds left, led to a pair of free-throw attempts for Trojan junior Jordan Reid with 5.4 seconds left. Washington called a timeout to let him think about the free throws for an extra 30 seconds.

?After the timeout, I was thinking, ?Here we go,?? Reid said. ?I went to the line with a good attitude, but it just didn?t go. Our team played good defense those last five seconds and it was a huge win.?

The half court shot by Thomas Bump was off the mark, as Fairfield (4-10, 1-4 in Southeast Conference play) defeated Washington (5-7, 1-2 in Southeast Conference play) 44-42.

For Washington, head coach Bryce Smeins attributed the loss to a tough first half, which saw them fall behind 31-17 at the break.

?Our effort was so much better (in the second half),? Smeins said. ?We played extremely hard in those last seven or eight minutes, and I didn?t think our effort was great in the first three quarters. In my opinion, I thought Fairfield played a lot harder than we did in the first 24 minutes. Their kids played harder and sharper.?

The Trojans were led by freshman Kolten Webber, who put in 11 points, while grabbing a team-high nine rebounds.

The freshman fouled out of the game while Washington was in the middle of its late charge, making it difficult for him on the bench.

?You really want to be in the game when that happens,? Webber said. ?You feel like you want to help, but you can?t because you made mistakes. The only thing you can do is hope that the guys can step in and make miracles.?

Fairfield started off the game fast, jumping out to a 9-3 lead, extending it to 17-9 by the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Trojans continued to shoot the ball well, getting a 10-2 run, which featured eight points from Webber, as Fairfield held a 31-17 lead at halftime, as Washington connected on just three field goals in the first half.

?You try to get to the free-throw line, and I don?t know what our free-throw percentage was, but we missed double-digit free throws (18-for-30 for the game),? Smeins said. ?We did that at Davis County and then found a way to win. We had our chances, but it just didn?t work out.?

In the second half, Fairfield extended its lead to 34-19, but Washington started to close the gap.

Over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, Washington went on its 12-0 run, closing the gap 40-39, before Fairfield called a timeout to settle things down.

?We haven?t been in that situation a whole lot this year, so the guys are kind of learning,? Miklo said. They have to learn how to make a mistake and get past that. We took a big step forward. We probably did everything we could wrong, and they didn?t let it bother them.?

The Trojans closed the game out, but Smeins wasn?t unhappy with the looks his team got down the stretch.

?That last little bit wasn?t the issue,? Smeins said. ?What led to that in the first half was what put us in that position. I thought our effort in that last eight minutes was really good. To go down 15 was the backbreaker for us.?

Fairfield will continue its season on Monday night with a contest against Davis County, and the key to staying on the winning track will be to keep improving.

?Our motto is to keep getting better every day,? Miklo said. ?I give all the credit to (the guys). They haven?t let it get to them or rolled over. They understand it?s going to be a struggle. They?ll take some lumps because we haven?t played together. Our schedule gets tough again from here, so we just have to keep trying to improve.?

For Washington, the Demons will travel to Fort Madison for a tough road conference matchup, as they will need to forget about this close loss quickly.

?We have to come back Monday in practice with a good attitude, and that?s one thing about basketball, we have no time to pout about it,? Smeins said. ?We have to play a rated team on Tuesday, so we have to flush this down the drain and move on.?