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VBC snatches road win over Fairfield
Warriors hang on after Trojans’ late surge
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD — Van Buren County dug deep on the road. It kept Fairfield at bay for the majority of their 66-65 win Monday night. But as the narrow final score reflects, the Warriors needed to withstand a late comeback effort from the Trojans.
Fairfield outscored Van Buren County 25-19 in the final stanza. Ethan Bisgard scored 31 points, including a layup to tie the game at 55 and later trimmed VBC’s lead to 62-57 with 54 seconds to play.
Axl Starr buried a 3-pointer to make it a two-point game, but Van Buren County’s calm presence at the free-throw line eliminated the opportunity for the Trojans to force overtime. VBC’s Will Cocherell answered with two free throws.
Bisgard put the pressure back on with a quick layup. Landry Loeffler responded by sinking two more freebies to push VBC’s lead back to four. He finished with 10 points in the fourth quarter.
“Making plays is what we need to be doing now,” Loeffler said. “We haven’t been used to that and now we’ll get used to that a little more with more confidence.”
Loeffler’s makes meant Bisgard’s buzzer-beating 3 left the Trojans one point short from sending the game to OT. VBC handed Fairfield its second straight loss.
It’s been far from a perfect season for Van Buren County. It entered its clash with Fairfield on a five-game losing streak, but found a winning formula with balanced scoring and a 68.8% clip from the free-throw line. The Warriors made 22 free throws Monday after shooting just 56.3% in their previous 11 games.
“That kind of comes back to just us struggling throughout the year,” Warriors coach Nathan Shelman said. “To be able to hit those key free throws down the stretch, for a team that (has) struggled to win the last few years, to be able to win a close game like that, you’ve got to be happy.”
Cocherell led the Warriors with 18 points. Teammates Loeffler and Kinnick Millard weren’t far behind at 17 and 16 points respectively. The trio also combined for 16 of VBC’s 33 rebounds.
“We know as a coaching staff that we’re going to have to have at least three to five guys hitting double figures for us to be able to be in a game,” Shelman said. “And tonight it really showed that we were able to do that.”
Sophomore Jace Duncan added eight points and six rebounds. Cree Kite led VBC with eight boards and chipped in five points off the bench.
The loss stings for Fairfield, which outplayed VBC in the fourth and took a 53-52 lead with a 13-2 run after going down by 10. The Trojans struggled to put together the same scoring stretches in the first half and gave up 22 points in the third quarter.
“We are not playing up to our capabilities right now, and we’ve got guys that are maybe under performing some and we’ve got to work on that,” Fairfield coach Nathan Perkins said. “When guys are hot, we’ve got to know who they are and get them the basketball. Can’t wait until the fourth quarter to start executing and expect to win a basketball game.”
Fairfield outrebounded VBC 40-33, racked up 10 steals and had four fewer turnovers. The Trojans shot 38.1% from the field and had 15 more attempts than the Warriors, but they were also critically less efficient from the free throw and 3-point lines. Fairfield went 4 of 19 from deep compared to 8 of 25 for VBC and hit just 13 of 22 free throw attempts.
Bisgard paired 11 rebounds with his 31 points and added three assists and five steals. Eli Zillman was the only other player in double figures with 16 points along with 10 boards, two assists, two steals and a block.
“We’ve got to get the ball to Eli more, let Ethan penetrate and dish and then when we run our offensive sets we’ve got to execute,” Perkins said. “It’s not that difficult. When we do execute, we look good and it’s just a lack of discipline on the floor.”
Fairfield (2-8, 1-4 Southeast) faces another nonconference test when it hosts Southeast Iowa Super Conference North side Pekin at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Trojans will then resume Southeast Conference play against Ft. Madison on Saturday.
