Trojans triumph with defensive stand

OSKALOOSA — After falling to Oskaloosa in the first game of the season, the Fairfield girls basketball team got payback when it matter most on Wednesday night.

With a relentless defensive outing, the Trojans were able top the Indians, 37-24 to keep their name in the post season conversation.

Fairfield played arguably its best defense of the season, allowing Oskaloosa to touch double digits in a quarter just once.

“Our defensive effort, outstanding,” Fairfield head coach Pat Pacha said. “I don’t know if they’ve score that low all season. I know we only scored 37, but that’s all we needed tonight.”

The Trojans came ready to play, quickly scoring seven unanswered. Fairfield would never trail.

Oskaloosa wouldn’t go down quietly though, as the Indians ended the first quarter on a 10-5 run, making it a 12-10 ballgame to start the second.

The first would prove to be Oskaloosa’s best scoring quarter, as the Trojans would hold the Indians to just 14 points until the final whistle.

In the second, Fairfield began to hunker down on the defense end. The Indians were limited to just two points in the entirety of the second quarter.

“Once you have a good first quarter or second quarter defensively and you don’t allow them to hit shots, then it puts the pressure on them to make them,” Danielle Breen said. “We were making them get selective and I think that worked in our favor.”

For the Trojans scoring, it was all Delaney Breen in the second. Out of the seven points the Trojans would score, she had each and everyone.

After the second quarter horn, Fairfield grasped a 19-12 lead.

“We were really trying not to force anything and we knew that if we just took care of the ball and made eight to 10 passes, there would be a layup,” Delaney Breen said. “There would be a wide-open shot. That’s what we wanted to take.“

There was no contrast in the third quarter. The two teams traded blows to start the period, with Fairfield holding a moderate seven point lead, 23-16, in the final two minutes of the third.

With two baskets from Danielle Breen near the end of the quarter, Fairfield saw its largest lead of the game, 27-16. The Trojans outscored the Indians 8-4 in the third.

Oskaloosa showed signs of a comeback early into the final quarter after a 6-2 run, in which Fairfield missed a pair of free throws off two trips to the line. The Indians brought it back to within seven, but they would come no further.

In a game where the Trojans struggled greatly from the foul line, they hit them when it counted. Starting at the 1:27 mark, Fairfield hit eight straight from the line to cap off a 10-8 fourth quarter to send itself on to the Region 5 semifinals.

Delaney Breen ended the night with 14 points. Danielle Breen finished contest with 12. Mallory Lyon scored five. Brynley Allison added four points. Kelsey Pacha chipped in two.

The Trojans will head to Indianola on Saturday for a matchup with the No. 4 Indianola Indians in the Region 5 Semifinal.

“We have an opportunity,” Pacha said of Indianola. “They might beat us 19 out of 20 times, but we gotta beat them once. We’re going to go up there loose, nothing to lose and we’re going to play a little basketball and get after them. They’re gonna see some defense.”