Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

PEDRO — The Fairland Lady Dragons were lucky their game wasn’t officiated by the Ohio Highway Patrol. They might have got a ticket for speeding.

The Lady Dragons got the pace of the game going at a fast speed that produced 23 turnovers as they routed the Lucasville Valley Lady Indians 62-29 on Saturday in the Division III sectional finals at Rock Hill High School.

“Our goal was to try and speed the pace up,” said Fairland coach Jon Buchanan.

“I thought they did a pretty decent job the first quarter. We were in a zone press that allowed them to find the open players. We adjusted that in the second quarter where we changed that to a little bit more of a man press. Even when they got the ball inbounds, they had to handle it one-on-one with nobody wide open to through the ball two.”

Emily Chapman revved her shooting engine up with six 3-point goals as she scored 20 points to lead Fairland (19-3). Allie Marshall added nine points and Taylar Wilson eight in the balanced offense.

Kamryn Conaway scored 16 points and had five rebounds for Valley.

Fairland shot 25-of-53 from the field including 8-of-18 from the 3-point line. The defense limited Valley to just 11-of-35 shooting and held the Lady Indians scoreless in the second quarter.

The game was tied at 10 after the first quarter, but to start the second quarter Taylor Perry made a layup, Wilson two baskets and Chapman hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 22-10 lead at the 4:18 mark.

Chapman added another triple, Perry a layup and Marshall a 3-pointer just before the buzzer and it was 32-10 at the half.

“Obviously the big difference in the game was the 22-0 run in the second quarter. We made some those shots that we weren’t making early on. We did a good job of not getting down on ourselves when we were missing shots,” said Buchanan.

“We had talked about it this week. We typically don’t shoot very well at Rock Hill and I don’t know what the reason is. We talked about not letting an early shooting slump get in our head and continue to be confident and continue to make plays.”

Valley finally got two free throws by Conaway with 6:18 on the third quarter clock to end their scoring drought, but the Lady Dragons still managed to stretch the lead to 49-20 at the end of the quarter and were never threatened.

Buchanan praised the efforts of Jackie Wagner and Issy McKinney who teamed up to try and fill the void left by injured center Alesha Simpson.

Wagner had five rebounds and six points and McKinney added five points and two rebounds.

“Jackie Wagner and Issy came in and did a great job. We miss Alesha, but those kids came in and did great. That’s what we preach in our program. Next man up. Next man be ready to play and those kids obviously were,” said Buchanan.

Fairland will play Southeastern at 8 p.m. on Thursday in the Waverly downtown arena.

Lucasville 10 0 10 9 = 29

Fairland 10 22 17 13 = 62

LUCASVILLE VALLEY (NA): Megan Duduit 0 1 0-5 3, Kacie Hickerson 1 0 0-0 2, Maddie Wright 1 0 0-2 2, Kamryn Conaway 6 0 4-6 16, Hannah Conley 1 0 2-4 4, Kaity Howard 1 0 0-0 2, Bailey Day 0 0 0-3 0, Billie Jennice 0 0 0-0 0, Brooklyn Jenkins 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11-35 6-20 29. 3-point goals: 1-7. Rebounds: 10-O, 18-D = 28 (Conaway 5, Duduit 5, Conley 5). Team rebounds: 5. Assists: 4 (Conaway 3). Steals: 2. Turnovers: 23. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.

FAIRLAND (19-3): Allie Marshall 3 1 0-0 9, Taylar Wilson 4 0 0-0 8, Emily Chapman 1 6 0-0 20, Kelsie Warnock 0 0 1-2 1, Taylor Perry 2 0 2-4 6, Jackie Wagner 3 0 0-0 6, Emma Fulton 2 0 1-2 5, Issy McKinney 1 1 0-0 5, Morgan Fridley 1 0 0-0 2, Karli Fuller 1 0 0-0 2, Brittany Thompson 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-53 4-8 62. 3-point goals: 8-18. Rebounds: 11-O, 19-D = 30 (Warnock 6, Wagner 5). Team rebounds 4. Assists: 6 (Warnock 2). Steals: 10 (Warnock 3, Chapman 2, Marshall 2, Fulton 2). Turnovers: 11. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: Wagner (4th).