A furious rally by Angola forced overtime, but Fairfield was able to sweat out a 50-47 girls basketball win in Steuben County Tuesday night. Fairfield had held a 38-23 lead heading into the fourth quarter, only for Angola to run off a 19-4 streak to send the game into extras. Fairfield was 11-15 from the free throw line in the contest, a perfect 8-8 from Madison Jones and Eva Herbert, who combined for 23 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and five steals. Macy Worthman chipped in 10 points, eight rebounds and four steals.
Isabella Roberson had 14 first-half points to help Angola to a 36-32 win in the JV contest. Gisel Lopez led Fairfield with 12 points and Mykayla Mast tallied 10 points.
Life was much easier at home Saturday evening, rolling past Prairie Heights 57-19. Eight players scored, led by Eva Herbert’s 14 points, and sister Haddie Herbert hit her first three-pointer of the season. Fairfield’s defense forced the Panthers into 30 turnovers, 24 of those coming off steals. Kaylee Dillon had seven of them to lead the Lady Falcons, which moves to 8-1 on the season, 3-0 in the NECC.
JV buckets had the Lady Falcons move to 7-2 overall with a 35-27 win over the Heights. Fairfield started out with an 11-0 lead and never looked back. Haddie Herbert and Aubrey Wogomon each tallied eight points to pace the victory.
Boys hoops had just one high school contest last week, that being at Prairie Heights Friday night.
The JV started the evening with a solid 66-41 win. All eight Falcons made at least one field goal in the game, and were led by Ben Kio’s 14 points and 12 points each from Cole Knight and Grady Garber.
Knight moved right into the varsity lineup and added 12 points, Brooks Custer had 15 points and Noah Mast led the Falcons with 16 points in a 63-27 varsity win in the nightcap. Fairfield made three of its seven three-pointers in a 21-3 third quarter, allowing the Falcons to pull away for good for its first win of the season, now 1-2 overall and 1-0 in the NECC.
West Noble hosted the NECC Super Duals, a two-day wrestling event Friday and Saturday. A mega-active series had Fairfield take on eight other NECC programs over the two days, and were an even 4-4 in the head-to-head matchups. Among the wins were against Churubusco (37-30), Fremont (48-30), Lakeland (48-36) and Westview (54-12).
Breckan Maran had a standout day at 190, absolute beast mode with a seven-pin tournament to go with a major decision to make it 8-0 in the two-day gauntlet.
Ethan Hochstetler was nearly perfect, going 7-1 in his work with four pins worked in. Ryan Noel (6-2) had five pins, and the trio of Matthew Senn, Aldahir Ortiz and Dirk Rumfelt were all 5-3 in mat action. Bradyn Williams and David Almiray each scored 24 points for the cause among pins and forfeits, Brockton Miller had a pin against Westview and Caden Merry added a pair of forfeits in favor of the Falcons.