He even wears Ray’s old number — 5.
Raymir Coney scored 15 points, shot a perfect 6 of 6 from the free throw line and grabbed nine rebounds to help lead Fairfield to a 62-58 victory over Middletown on Friday night at Wade E. Miller Arena.
“It all starts at practice,” Raymir Coney said. “We just had to get mentally prepared for this game. During hard times, we’ve just got to stay composed. We’re just trying to stay on track right now.”
The Indians (12-5, 10-2 Greater Miami Conference) are getting there.
Fairfield has won three in a row and is staffed with leading scorer Daviawne Crim, who returned to the lineup full-time after nursing a shoulder injury the last few weeks. The senior scored 11 points in 31 minutes of action.
“Dav’s back,” Indians coach DJ Wyrick said. “Dav’s back at 100%. Getting him back and back to who he is — to normal Dav — has really helped. It’s opened up the offense, and the ball was moving a lot more.
“I thought we were really connected — especially late during some of those adverse situations. I thought we stayed together, stayed composed. Our guys just played hard.”
Fairfield senior center Gabe Clemmons had 15 points and 13 rebounds. Michael Lewis added 13 points, five assists and five steals.
Middletown’s Chandler Shields led all scorers with 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Keith Daniels added 12 points and five assists, while Ny’Jhere Araujo bucketed 11 points.
“We just thought that we let them get to the rim too easily in the beginning,” Middletown coach Bill Edwards Jr. said. “We weren’t stepping over a couple times. We should have taken some charges. They have some pretty good guards that can get downhill and make plays. We left the shooter a couple of times early.
“We also had guys playing new roles and playing more minutes. I think once they settled in, we were fine.”
Middletown (11-6, 6-5 GMC) is without leading scorer Jeremiah Landers, starting center Dae’Shaun Showes and forward Kasaun Graham. Senior Michael Maldonado went out with a leg injury in the fourth quarter.
Edwards said time will tell when they will see the court again.
“We thought we were confident,” Edwards said. “We’re still confident in the guys that we have going forward.
“We’ve got to continue to try and play in even better shape. We had three guys play more than 30 minutes, and we didn’t shoot the ball well. We were playing a lot faster than we were with this group because we’re a little smaller.” Fairfield led 19-15 after one quarter and took a 33-25 advantage into the locker room. The Indians maneuvered past Middletown’s press in the second half but had a hard time finishing at the bucket. “There were a lot of empty possessions,” Wyrick said. “Typically, our guys are making those plays and finishing. There were some late turnovers in the press once we broke the press, or we just didn’t finish around the rim.” Middletown made it a 40-37 game heading into the final quarter, but Fairfield had a 10-0 burst to pull away. The Indians shot 19 of 46 (41%) while the Middies fired 20 of 60 (33%). “Our guys stayed composed,” Wyrick said. “Those guys play really hard. They’re well-coached. They had a plan. Unfortunately, they’ve got some injuries, and we were able to get one here. Winning in the league on the road is a challenge, and for us to be able to do that here is big.” In the know This is the only regular-season meeting between Middletown and Fairfield. ... Middletown was on a 10-game winning streak before losing to Princeton 85-75 on Tuesday. ... Fairfield started the season 7-0 before going 5-5 in the last 10 games. ... Fairfield beat Middletown 58-56 last season. The Indians now lead the series 11-7 in the last 10 seasons.The stat categories looked similar, though Middletown outrebounded Fairfield by four boards (39-35) and had 13 more personal fouls (23-10).
Up next
Both teams get back to action on Tuesday. Fairfield hosts Fairmont, while Middletown travels to Princeton.
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