Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LOGAN — After a rough night shooting through two and a half quarters, Fairfield Union suddenly got red-hot on its way to a comeback victory on Thursday, advancing to Friday’s district championship game.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
The Falcons (15-9) missed their first 10 shots from 3-point range and trailed Marietta 25-17 in the third quarter before senior Isabella Neal splashed a wing 3 to begin a 21-2 run, leading to the team’s ninth straight victory — a 45-40 final.
Neither team was able to get momentum in the early goings, trading leads throughout the first quarter. Marietta’s Leigha Lauer gave the Tigers (20-4) a lead after one, scoring seven points on three mid-range jumpers and a free throw while Jacey McKnight buried a trey as well.
Bu despite the Falcons’ struggles from downtown, junior Elly Lewis provided an offensive spark they needed to stay within range.
“It’s big for us,” Fairfield Union’s Nicole Terry said of Lewis. “It lets us know that someone is hitting shots. We’re all working hard but she’s hitting. So we just keep feeding her and we keep feeding off of that.”
Marietta carried a 16-13 lead into halftime and looked as if it was going to pull away in the opening minutes of the third. McKnight rang from long distance before a triple from Lauer pushed the Tigers to the aforementioned 25-17 lead with 3:23 left in the quarter.
The Falcons then looked inside to Terry, who saw a double team and found Neal on the wing where she calmly ignited the Falcons’ crowd with the team’s first successful shot from downtown.
Christian Thompson then split Marietta’s defense for a driving layup before Terry scored on a gorgeous post move to ultimately tie the game at 25-25. Thompson finished the 11-0 run to end the third with a 3-pointer from the same spot where Neal converted earlier in the quarter.
Fairfield Union outscored Marietta 15-9 in the third behind an outstanding defensive effort, forcing seven turnovers and limiting the Tigers to one shot, giving the Falcons a chance to make their run.
“We were able to get into our traps and contain [Marietta],”Thompson said. “And we didn’t foul as much as we did in the first half, which was big. We just put it on them defensively and they obviously couldn’t handle it.”
Marietta’s Rylee Kendall scored to begin the fourth quarter, before Thompson slashed through the Tigers’ defense for another layup. After an empty Marietta possession, the Falcons added to the lead as Lewis splashed a 3 from the wing to push the lead to six.
Freshman Maycee Martindill then scored on consecutive drives to give the Falcons their biggest lead of the night at 37-27.
Marietta attempted to rally back and had cut the lead to 42-36 on a 3 from Lauer.
But Martindill scored on a dagger drive with 26.3 seconds to play as she split the defense for a right-handed layup, allowing the Falcons to seal their 11th victory in their past 12 tries.
“It’s great,” Thompson said of Martindill. “Being a freshman on varsity is not easy. She worked hard to get there.”
After a 4-8 start to the season, a team change of attitude has now helped steer Fairfield Union towards a district championship matchup with the undefeated Fairland Dragons.
“We realized we weren’t having the best season,” Terry said. “So we came together and were like, ‘We can do this. We’re just going to have fun for the rest of the season.’ We just enjoyed the ride. Then we started winning games and it just keeps feeding off of that.”
Marietta’s Lauer led all scorers with 19 points and she also pulled down nine rebounds to tie her with Riley Medley for a team-high.
Fairfield Union was led by Lewis with 14 points, while Thompson turned in a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
The underdog Falcons have pulled off back-to-back upsets over Warren and Marietta, but after scouting Fairland in Monday’s first game, they know they still have some key adjustments to make before Friday — which is a 6 p.m. start at Southeastern High School.
“We need to get out to shooters and be efficient with our offense,” Terry said.
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