The team that starts three freshmen grew up during a grueling 73-68 loss at Princeton High School. They helped lead Fairmont to the district finals for the first time since the Firebirds were a regional finalist in 2020.
“Our kids fought the entire game,” Firebirds coach Jeremey Finn said. “Going into the double overtime we gave everything we could. Unfortunately, at this stage, you got to have a few things go right. It wasn’t for lack of effort.”
Fairmont (19-7) rallied from down 47-41 in regulation. Freshman point guard Nico Cornett, who scored a team-high 24 points, scored on a drive and freshman center Lena Buskard scored to cut the deficit to two. Cornett made two driving layups in the final minute to force overtime at 49-49.
The Firebirds trailed 57-52 with 1:39 left in the first overtime, but Cornett made a layup, made two free throws and senior Serena Baker (19 points) converted a three-point play to force a second overtime.
East’s Madison French, who made 11 of 13 free throws and scored 29 points, missed her only two free throws with 29 seconds left in the first overtime. But Cornett got caught in a triple team in the lane and the Firebirds couldn’t get off a possible winning shot.
French was for 6-for-6 at the line in the second overtime, increasing the lead from one to three each time.
Cornett, Buskard and Kaylah Thornton are the freshmen and will return along with junior Kenzie Roark. Buskard scored seven points in the first quarter and five in the third for 12 points.
“Nico didn’t come off the floor very much,” Finn said. “She played really, really hard and she’s had a great year. All of our kids had a really terrific year for us. And we’re really proud of them, all of them.”
Thornton spent most of the game in foul trouble and fouled out with 5:13 left in regulation. She plays the top of the Firebirds’ 3-2 zone and is a scoring threat.
“It changes a little bit what we do defensively,” Finn said of Thornton’s absences. “But I thought Kenzie did a great job moving to the top. We rebounded a lot better in the second half than we did in the first half. And it just puts pressure on kids that aren’t used to doing that to perform, and they did.”
Kings 61, Centerville 53: The Elks’ bid to overcome losses in the district finals the past two years took a big hit in the first quarter. And a 10-point hole was too much to escape.
“We weren’t sound defensively in the first quarter like I thought we were for most of the game after that,” Elks coach Adam Priefer said. “The first quarter they took advantage of every minor mistake or major mistake we made, and they made us pay. So credit to them.”
Kings (21-5), which won its first district title in its first appearance, bolted to a 22-12 lead as Kassie Ingram scored 14 of her game-high 28 points. The Elks scored four points to start the second quarter, but they still trailed 33-23 at halftime. The Elks started the third quarter well to cut Kings’ lead to 33-29. They also made it 47-43 early in the fourth, but Kings always had answers despite making only 15 of 29 free throws.
Kings’ defensive strategy was to keep the Elks, in particular senior Kendal George, from shooting and making 3-pointers. The Elks were 1 of 6 as a team and George missed her only attempt and scored eight points.
“They were face guarding Kendal on the perimeter, making it hard for her to get a look,” Priefer said. “That hurts us. We need to hit threes here and there.”
Emily Grim led the Elks with 12 points, Leona Ciarlariello added 11 off the bench and Anna Grim had 10.
Mason 55, Springboro 28: Tom Benjamin has felt better at halftime many times in his 42 years of coaching. Nonetheless, a 19-18 deficit to Mason felt positive.
His team of sophomores and juniors opened with leads of 11-4 and 14-11 at the end of the first quarter. The Panthers (17-9) didn’t score again until Bryn Martin and Carly Turman made layups in the final 27 seconds of the half to cut Mason’s lead to 19-18.
“We felt pretty good in the locker room,” Benjamin said. “And then we came out and they really kind of ran us out. I mean they beat us down the floor. And they hit shots.”
Timeouts did the Panthers no good. By the time the third quarter ended, Mason (25-1) led 42-24 and was on its way to the same kind of win it had at Springboro in November (44-25).
None of the Panthers scored in double figures. The biggest spark was two 3-pointers off the bench in the first quarter from sophomore Brooke Clear. Minus that, the Panthers wouldn’t have scored in double figures in any quarter and scored half their points in the first quarter.
“We had shots around the basket,” Benjamin said. “We didn’t make them. It’s kind of what we’ve done this year.”
About the Author