John Bruce, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LEESBURG — On a night where Eastern’s Rylee Leonard made history, Peyton Magee and the Fairfield Lions played a spoiler role.
CREDIT: Cory Hall/SOSA
Leonard entered the night with 1,995 career points and eclipsed the 2,000 mark in the first quarter, before eventually finishing the night with 21 points. However, Magee’s 25 points led Fairfield (12-5, 9-2 SHAC) to a 46-38 victory to stay alive — for now, at least — inside the SHAC title race.
“We’re just all together,” Fairfield’s Faith Donley said. “Every single minute of the game, we were all together. Once we get our rhythm going, there’s really no stopping us. Anyone can hit a shot on this team and once we get our chemistry going, it’s really just up from there.”
The Warriors (18-3, 9-3 SHAC) jumped out to a quick lead behind the duo of Leonard and Sarah Clark, while also preventing the Lions from getting any quality looks on the defensive end.
Fairfield scored its first points on a pair of treys from Magee and Hailey Tolle. But with 1:43 remaining in the first quarter, Leonard splashed a deep 3 to reach 2,000 points and stretch the Warriors’ lead to 12-6.
After a basket from Magee, Eastern’s McKinzie Dotson scored a runner in the lane through contact just before the horn sounded to give the Warriors a 14-8 edge after a quarter.
In the second, the Lions turned their defensive intensity up to 11, forcing a multitude of turnovers, many of which led to easy scores on the other end. Magee and Donley scored all of Fairfield’s 12 points in the frame and helped their Lions end the half on a 7-0 run to cut Eastern’s lead to 21-20 at halftime.
At the break, the Lions knew they needed a bit more of an offensive punch. That came from sophomore Kassi Miller.
Miller, who came into the game shooting nearly 35 percent from 3-point range, buried a triple on the first possession of the second half, giving Fairfield its first lead of the game.
“She’s really stepped up a lot,” Donley said of Miller. “She was our sixth man when Jobey [Hattan] was playing, but she’s hurt right now and [Miller] has stepped up. Sometimes, she’s not as confident as she should be. But she should have all the confidence in the world. She’s a great shooter. She hits them at the right time in the right spot and it really picks us up.”
BY THE NUMBERS
The Lions only shot 32.6% from the field, but only committed 11 turnovers and made six 3-pointers on the night. Fairfield also limited Eastern’s chances by forcing 25 turnovers, while only giving the Warriors six shots at the free throw line. Eastern made 5-of-6 free throw tries, while Fairfield shook off missing their first three attempts to ultimately shoot 75% from the charity stripe.
The Lions never relinquished that lead, only adding to it and building it to as much as 11 points at 38-27 … on another 3 from Miller.
Fairfield displayed an elite level of defense to hold Leonard below her scoring average of 30.2 points per game. Leonard, who can score from basically anywhere on the court, had Magee tracking her everywhere on the floor and the Lions’ box-and-one defensive strategy always had another teammate to help Magee if she were to get screened.
By forcing the ball out of Leonard’s hands, the Lions were able to force a bevy of turnovers and limit the Thomas More signee from taking her usual load of shots.
“I think we all just knew what [Leonard’s] strengths and weaknesses were,” Magee said. “Last game, she pretty much just shot her way through us the whole game. She’s a really good shooter. So we made sure to just get out on her and my teammates did a really good job helping on some screens until I got back.”
Leonard did everything she could to keep the Warriors in the game, scoring from the paint and from deep, but the Lions kept her away from the free throw line where the elite scorer shoots a high percentage.
Despite Leonard’s efforts, the Warriors could never cut the lead to a single possession, as Donley and Magee shot a combined 8-for-8 from the free throw line in the final two minutes to salt the game away.
While the trio of Donley, Magee and Miller stood out at the top of the defensive effort, Tolle and Hannah Hamilton provided length and rebounding on the interior to eliminate the chance for easy points and offensive rebounds.
“Foul shots are probably a quarter of our practices,” Magee said. “It’s really something we work on. We know that free throws at the end can really win you the game.”
With the win, the Lions are now alone in second place in the SHAC, only trailing unbeaten North Adams.
The Warriors slip to third in the division and have 10 days off before they travel to North Adams on Feb. 2.
Fairfield returns to action on Thursday, when they host the red-hot Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs.
“We have to stay together,” Donley said. “The games we’ve lost, we haven’t been together. The communication hasn’t been there. We know and we preach it in practice that we’re a family. So we just have to all stick together. If we do that, the outcomes will be good.”
BOX SCORE
Eastern: 14-7-4-13 — 38
Fairfield: 8-12-8-18 — 46
Eastern scoring: Leonard 21, Clark 15, Dotson 2.
Fairfield scoring: Magee 25, Donley 11, Miller 6, Tolle 4.
SPONSORED BY WILLEY & SON TRUCKING
