Gentile scored 15 points, Baker and sophomore Jayden McGraw each had 13 points and junior Kaden Ralston added 11 as the Firebirds improved to 6-4 in the conference and 7-10 overall. They’re one game back of Centerville (9-8, 7-3) in the GWOC title race.
“Second time around GWOC games are always going to be tough battles, regardless of who’s at the top or at the bottom,” said Firebirds coach Kenny Molz. “In this case this year, everybody is just kind of beating everybody so you know it’s going to be a good one as long as everybody brought effort. I’m proud of our guys for fighting adversity all year long.”
Beavers senior Isaiah-Michaael Williams had a game-high 30 points and senior Owen Roether added 14 as Beavercreek fell to 7-11 and 5-6 in the GWOC race.
Baker and McGraw combined for 11 points to give the Firebirds a 16-7 lead after one quarter.
The Beavers turned up the pressure in the second quarter, tying the score at 22 after back-to-back layups by Isaiah-Michael Williams. Gentile and senior Marlin Howard each hit layups in the final two minutes to give Fairmont a 26-24 halftime lead.
“Both teams played really hard,” said Beavers coach Isaiah Williams. “We dug ourselves a hole and we were able to get out of it. … At the end of the day for us, we didn’t rebound the ball. We gave them second chance opportunities and when we did get them, we weren’t strong enough with it. That was the course of the game.”
Beavercreek tied the score at 30 early in the third quarter, but the Firebirds went on a 10-2 run capped by a putback by McGraw to give Fairmont an eight-point lead with about two minutes remaining.
The Beavers cut the lead to 47-46 on a basket by senior Eli Walker, but Ralston hit a 3-pointer with 1:32 remaining to push the Firebirds lead back up to 52-48.
Isaiah-Michael Williams cut the lead to 52-50 with 36 seconds remaining, but one free throw from Baker and two more from Gentile made it 55-50 with 19.8 seconds remaining.
Isaiah-Michael Williams scored again on a pull-up jumper that the Beavers’ bench thought was a 3-pointer, but the officials said it was a two-point basket to make it 55-52.
Baker hit two more free throws with 9.6 seconds remaining to extend the lead back to five points.
Isaiah-Michael Williams hit a 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds remaining to make it 57-55. Gentile was fouled again and missed the first free throw, but hit the second to make it 58-55 with 2.6 seconds to go.
The Firebirds opted to foul in the waning moments and Beavercreek wasn’t able to get a shot to tie the game.
“(Baker and Gentile) had a really good percentage in the big moments,” Molz said. “We made enough free throws to keep our lead extended just enough. When you have someone like (Isaiah-Michael Williams), if you don’t do that, you know he’s going to capitalize in the big moments of the game.”
Isaiah-Michael Williams scored 10 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter. He’s scored 20 or more points seven straight games and 15 of the Beavers 18 games this season.
“He’s been having a stellar season and unfortunately our record doesn’t reflect that,” Isaiah Williams said. “There wasn’t too much I could ask of him in that situation to get us back in the game. We’ve just got to keep plugging away.”
Molz was proud of his team’s effort after back-to-back tough losses at Elder and Centerville.
“You’re trying to do things the right way and it’s not working out, but no matter what, you keep continuing to try to work that way,” Molz said. “I’m hoping that tonight things unravel for us in the right direction and we get on a really good
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