ATHENS — A funny thing happened to the Fairland Dragons at the Division III district semifinals.

They won.

Having already lost 52-47 earlier this season to the Alexander Spartans and underdogs to the 18-3 top-seed, the Dragons ignored the odds and posted a 57-48 win Sunday to advance to the district finals.

“We’ve been written off a few times this year. No one gave us much hope before this one,” Fairland coach Chad Belville said.

Fairland is now 12-10 on the season and faces Wheelersburg at 4 p.m. Saturday in the district finals. Wheelersburg routed Huntington Ross 76-59 to advance.

The Dragons full-court pressure caused Alexander to commit 27 turnovers.

“When we played the first time we dug ourselves too big of a hole. We knew if we don’t spot them 18 or 19 points we had a chance,” Belville said. “We had to take advantage of our quickness. We felt we could press them and they didn’t handle it too well.”

Michael Lamb had 15 points and 10 rebounds, seven on the offensive glass, to lead the Dragons. Adam Fuller had 13 points while Dustin Bumgardner grabbed nine rebounds.

Daniel Skidmore scored 11 points while Zach Hedrick and Matt Demosky 10 points each for Alexander.

Fuller hit a pair of 3-pointers including one with 3:41 to tie the game at 10-10. Lamb had a layup to put the Dragons up for good at 12-10.

Leading 14-11 at the end of the first quarter, Fairland used a 7-0 run early in the second quarter to go up 21-13.

A layup by Burt Wilson with 55 seconds left in the half got the Spartans within 27-22 before Lamb followed up a missed shot at the buzzer and it was 29-22 at the break.

“The two big keys for us coming into the game was to control the rebounds and play with more emotion,” Belville said. “We felt like in the first half we got every loose ball.”

A layup by Rich Staggs gave Fairland a 39-31 lead at the end of the third quarter, but Alexander got within 42-41 with 4:52 to pla on a 3-pointer by Hedrick.

Lamb converted a three-point play only to have Hedrick answer with another trey.

A baseline jumper by Lamb and a layup by Josh Johnson with 2:15 left stretched the lead to 49-44.

Johnson passed to Staggs for a layup with 1:58 to go and pushed the lead to 51-46.

The Spartans were forced to foul but the Dragons converted on just 4 of 14 over the final 1:26. Alexander wasn’t able to take advantage of the poor foul shooting as the Spartans were just 6 of 19 from the field in the fourth quarter.

Fairland struggled at the foul line, especially in the fourth quarter. The Dragons were 8 of 23 for the game and just 6 of 20 in the final stanza.

“At the end I think it was just excitement. We felt like we had the game won,” Belville said.

Fairland14151018=57

Alexander1111917=48

FAIRLAND (12-10): Josh Johnson 3-6 (0-0) 3-10 9, Adam Fuller 5-13 (3-5) 0-0 13, Cole Hatfield 1-6 (1-4) 0-2 3, Michael Lamb 6-9 (1-1) 2-4 15, Matt Burd 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Dustin Bumgardner 3-5 (0-0) 1-3 7, Kyle Wise 0-1 (0-1) 1-2 1, Rich Staggs 2-4 (0-0) 0-0 4, Ethan Long 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Chris Barnett 2-2 (0-0) 0-0 4, J.B. Black 0-0 (0-0) 1-2 1, Zach Jordan 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Ryan Dunn 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Ethan Black 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 22-47

(5-11)

8-23

57. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 12-14=26 (Lamb 10, Bumgardner 9). Team/deadball rebounds: 4. Assists: 5 (Fuller 2, Johnson 2). Steals: 9 (Fuller 2, Johnson 2, Hatfield 2). Turnovers: 21.

ALEXANDER (18-4): Rylan Kirkendall 3-9 (0-3) 0-2 6, Zach Hedrick 3-5 (2-3) 2-3 10, Daniel Skidmore 5-13 (1-4) 0-1 11, Matt Demosky 2-9 (1-2) 5-8 10, Michael DiBenedetto 0-1 (0-0) 1-2 1, Ryan Thomas 0-0 (0-0) 1-2 1, Seth Fowler 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Burt Wilson 2-3 (0-0) 1-2 5, Nick Lalesko 1-2 (0-0) 0-0 2, Michael Bolin 0-1 (0-1) 0-0 0, Brian Lawson 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Shawn Howson 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2. Totals: 17-45

(4-13)

10-20

48. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 14-17=31 (Skidmore 7, Demostky 6, Malesko 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 1. Assists: 3 (Skidmore 2). Steals: 9 (Skidmore 3, Kirkendall 2, Hedrick 2). Turnovers: 27.