“Our guys were ready to go. I seen them walk through this morning,” said Moss, Lakota West’s second-year coach. “They were locked in. We were well-prepared. They have not forgotten the two losses in the season. Those two losses got in our way of being a GMC champion.
“That was always in the back of their minds. So they came into the game ready to go. We didn’t need a lot of rah-rah. They were locked in.”
Isaiah Meade-Moss scored a team-high 13 points, Bryce Curry added 10 and the Firebirds beat the Fairfield Indians 45-40 in a Division I regional final at Xavier University’s Cintas Center.
Lakota West (21-5) advances to the state semifinals for the first time in school history and will face Reynoldsburg at noon next Sunday at Wright State’s Nutter Center.
“These guys have been bought in throughout this whole 10-month journey,” Moss said. “Every coach is going to say their kids deserve it, right? Because everybody is putting their work in. These kids worked. They bought in. They believed. They stayed connected. I’m proud of them.”
Fairfield swept Lakota West during the regular season by a combined three points — 46-45 at Fairfield on Dec. 10 and 61-59 at Lakota West on Jan. 3.
“The whole tournament is very in detail,” said Meade-Moss, a senior guard. “You can’t have a bad practice in March. We just really locked in defensively because in the regular season when they beat us, it was our defense. We watched the film, had a lot of just lazy miscues. Today I think we locked in. We held their main players to limited scoring, and we got the job done.”
Michael Lewis scored a game-high 14 points for Fairfield, which has lost in the regional finals three out of the last four seasons. Matthew Hilvert had nine points, Daviawne Crim added eight points and six rebounds, and Gabe Clemmons chipped in with six points 11 rebounds.
“I don’t think that there were many people that expected us to be in this game,” Indians coach DJ Wyrick said. “We got a lead with two minutes to go. So, I’m proud of these guys. They put in a lot of time, a lot of effort, and they were rewarded for it.
“I think overall, looking at the season as a whole, I’m just proud of how we got our program back to where we wanted — just from a culture standpoint, from a connectivity standpoint,” Wyrick added. “They certainly left this place better than they found it. From that standpoint, I’m just thrilled with the season that these guys had.
“Obviously, we’re sitting here, and we wanted more. But as you look at the season as a whole, these guys did a hell of a job. I told them that nobody outside the dudes in that locker room thought we would be here.”
Wyrick said five Lakota West offensive rebounds in the first quarter played a key factor in Fairfield’s 13-7 deficit.
“There was a couple that may have bounced their way, but there was some I felt we could have been a little more disciplined in our block-outs,” Wyrick said. “But we came out, competed, got the lead back, they fought back. I’m proud of that. We got down, and it’s easy to fold in those moments.”
Lakota West owned a 24-18 advantage heading into the halftime break, and a Curry dunk gave the Firebirds their largest lead of the game at 28-18 with 5:11 left in the third.
Fairfield fought back and a Clemmons score gave the Indians a 35-34 lead with about four minutes remaining.
Then Meade-Moss, Kelven Moss’s son, drained a clutch 3 to put Lakota West back on top seconds later.
“That was big time,” Moss said. “These guys have been through this. We set our whole summer and fall for this moment. We play some of the best teams in the state, the best team in Florida, best team in Indiana — and so in those moments, they never blinked in those timeouts when Fairfield was rallying back in the game. Then he just made a big shot. I’m proud of him.”
The Firebirds were able to finish it off down the stretch.
“First of all, great team over there,” Moss said of Fairfield. “DJ’s a hell of a coach. Three out of the four years he’s been in this spot. That’s a vet. So anytime I get to compete against him, I love it. It’s going to be a great game.
“I think that’s why I was emotional earlier,” added Moss, who noted that a guest speaker talked to his program prior to the game. “Everything has come together. They believe. We’re playing exactly how we thought and assumed we would play early on.”
Fairfield (18-8) graduates seniors Taylor Riemenschneider, Daviawne Crim, Michael Lewis, Matthew Hilvert and Gabe Clemmons.
About the Author