Trojans in familiar territory

Last year, the Fairfield girls' basketball team had to defeat the No. 1 ranked defending state champions, North Scott, on the road to earn their first trip to the state tournament in Des Moines in 28 years. This year is the same story as the Trojans will head to No. 1 ranked Marion Tuesday to face the Indians after holding on for a 60-57 Class 4A region 7 semifinal victory over Clear Creek-Amana at FHS Saturday night.

Breakdown

Fairfield led 14-12 after eight minutes of back and forth play before breaking out offensively in the second period when they out paced their opponent 16-9 with the help of junior Destiny Gridley who tallied 17 points in the first half to extend the Trojan advantage to nine.

'I was just kind of looking for the open shot and then once they started to fall, I got a little bit of confidence and it all worked out,” explained Gridley who finished with 25 points on 8-15 shooting from the field, including 5-9 from beyond the arc while grabbing seven rebounds and three steals and dishing three assists.

Also piling up the points were Shaylin Drish who had 16 to go with three rebounds, three assists and two steals and Kara Jeffrey who totaled 14 points, three rebounds and an assist.

'I think it was mostly our passing that led to Shaylin finding me open a lot on the kick and drive,” said Jeffrey.

The other two starters collected the other five points scored with Malory Jones scoring four with her five rebounds and two assists and Ashley Bloomquist hitting 1-2 from the charity stripe to go with her five rebounds, three assists and a steal.

CCA refused to quit and started the second half with an 8-0 run that cut their deficit to just a single point before Drish and Jeffrey hit 3-pointers to go with an old-fashioned three-point play by Gridley that buoyed the home team's advantage back up to double digits at 40-29. Fairfield led 44-37 at the end of three quarters of play and had to hold on in the final minutes after being outscored 20-16 over the final eight minutes of play.

Coach speak

'I really want to thank our enormous crowd that came out to support us, from the guys on the basketball team that were super loud in the student section to the fans that support us week in and week out. We hope you support the boys Monday versus Centerville, we'll be there, and we're excited to see as many of you as possible Tuesday in Marion.” -Brian Witzenburg

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Tuesday at No. 1 Marion

'It's going to be a good game,” said Malory Jones. 'I'm very excited,” shared Kara Jeffrey. 'After last year we really want to win the game and know what we need to do.”