COAL GROVE – If you do something enough, you’ll get it right.

The Fairland Dragons kept taking shots and they were missing most of them. But after a total of 91 field goal attempts, the Dragons made enough and downed the Coal Grove Hornets 70-40 Friday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

“We couldn’t make a shot to save our lives,” said Fairland coach Chad Belville.

But a whopping 69 rebounds and a strong defensive effort carried the Dragons to the win despite shooting just 29.7 percent.

“This is the best defensive intensity I had with any team at Fairland. We really got after it and that’s why we had multiple chances,” Belville said.

Jacob Lucas had 15 points, Michael Lamb 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Cole Hatfield 11 points and 10 boards as all 11 Dragons scored.

Zach Murphy had 9 points, Tyler Branch 8 and Adam Bare 7 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Hornets (0-10, 0-3).

“We didn’t want Bare and Branch to catch it in the paint and we had success tonight accomplishing that. I’ll say this, their kids never quit. That’s a tribute to their character and coach (Mike) Waller,” Belville said.

Waller gave a lot of credit to Fairland’s quickness as the decisive factor.

“Fairland’s quickness really gave us difficulties. We had quite a few turnovers,” Waller said of the 23 miscues. “But our kids played hard and gave a pretty good effort.”

Balanced scoring put Fairland up 18-6 at the end of the first quarter. Lucas and Hatfield combined for 11 points in the second quarter and the lead was 37-15 although the Dragons were 14 of 54 from the field in the half.

Coal Grove cut the spread to 37-20 to begin the second half, but Lucas scored 7 points and the defense came to life as Fairland pulled away to a 61-30 lead.

“We put Jordan Kersey in the game and he gave us a big spark defensively and hit a big three. His energy level got us going again,” Belville said.

Fairland is now 5-3 and 3-0 in the OVC with a showdown Tuesday against 3-0 South Point.

Fairland1819249=70

Coal Grove691510=40

FAIRLAND (5-3, 3-0): Ryan Dunn 0-2 0-2 3-3 3, Zach Jordan 2-10 0-0 2-4 6, Matt Bloomfield 2-10 0-0 3-6 7, Jordan Kersey 0-5 1-1 0-0 3, Ethan Long 1-4 0-0 0-0 2, Cole Hatfield 4-14 1-2 1-1 11, Jacob Lucas 7-13 0-1 1-1 15, Zach Ferguson 0-3 0-0 1-2 1, Michael Lamb 5-13 0-0 2-2 12, Caleb Hatfield 2-7 0-1 2-5 6, Dustin Bumgardner 2-5 0-0 0-2 4. Totals: 27-91 2-5

14-26

70. 3-point goals: 2-5. Fouls: 22. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 69 (Lamb 14, Ca. Hatfield 10, Co. Hatfield 10, Long 8, Jordan 8, Bloomfield 8). Assists: 15 (Jordan 7). Turnovers: 8.

COAL GROVE (0-10, 0-3): Simon Hall 0-0 0-0 2-3 3, Zach Murphy 3-8 0-1 3-5 9, Chris Dirling 0-4 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Johnson 0-3 0-0 2-2 2, Zach Sloan 1-3 0-0 2-2 4, Shannon Goodwin 0-1 0-1 1-2 1, Eric Davidson 1-4 0-1 2-2 4, Austin Willis 0-2 0-4 3-6 3, Jacob Browning 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Branch 4-7 0-0 0-2 8, Adam Bare 3-13 0-0 1-2 7. Totals: 12-45

0-7

1-26

40. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 33 (Bare 11). Assists: 2. Turnovers: 23.