“Down the stretch we came together and really played our best basketball on a night where we didn’t play our best,” said Wieland, who was 8-of-17 from the floor and 10-of-13 from the free-throw line. “In the end we won, and that’s all that really matters.
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“To have a night like this, it really helps having good teammates that aren’t selfish. I made some shots, and they were willing to pass it to me. I will do the same for them, and that really helps when we’re all unselfish and willing.”
East (2-0), finding itself down most of the night, sent the game into overtime when Grant Spicer converted a layup on a designed out-of-bounds play underneath its basket with just a few seconds on the clock.
“I don’t want to give away too much,” Thunderhawks coach Clint Adkins said. “But basically there is a read that we have and our inbounder made the right read, and Grant Spicer did a nice job attacking the ball, going to get it and making the basket.”
Both teams played outstanding defense throughout the contest. Fairfield limited East to 1-of-14 from behind the arc, while the hosts forced 24 Indian turnovers.
“Coming into the game we wanted to keep them out of transition, and I didn’t think we did a very good job of that at times,” Adkins said. “We didn’t give in, got stops when we needed to and defended well, forcing a lot of turnovers.
“We took care of the basketball and moved it around. We had a lot of good shots tonight, but sometimes you are going to have bad shooting nights, and this is a good shooting team. Guys like Bash and other guys make big plays in big situations, and that’s what we got tonight.”
Fairfield had leads at the end of the first and third quarters and was locked in a tie at the half. The Indians shot 64 percent from the floor in the first half and got solid contributions throughout.
Overtime was controlled by East as the Thunderhawks, fueled by FHS turnovers, scored on their first three possessions. The game had 10 ties and 10 lead changes, most of which came in the second half.
The Indians (1-2) were led by Devin Turner and Caleb Pryce with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
“We know we are a good team. We are confident about everything we do,” Fairfield coach Jeff Sims said. “We played better defensively tonight. At the end of the game, are we going to execute, get the rebound, run the possession and take the shot we need to take? That’s the difference in the game.
“We just need to get better, and that’s what practices are for. They have to buy in more to what we are saying, but we have the right people that can perform the things that we want to accomplish. We think that we will be one of the better teams in the city.”
East will travel to St. Xavier on Saturday, while the Indians will be on the road Tuesday to face Oak Hills.
Fairfield 10-10-12-11-4—47
Lakota East 7-13-9-14-13—56
FAIRFIELD (1-2, 0-1 GMC): Devin Turner 4 4 14; Zavian Ricks 2 0 4; Caleb Pryce 4 0 10; Allen Caldwell 1 0 2; DaShaun Simpkins 3 2 9; Steven Taylor 2 1 5; Peyton Brown 1 0 3. Totals: 17-7-47
LAKOTA EAST (2-0, 1-0 GMC): Jared McCorkle 0 1 1; Alex Mangold 0 4 4; Kaden Fuhrmann 3 0 7; Bash Wieland 8 10 26; Will Johnston 1 0 2; Grant Spicer 3 1 7; Nate Johnson 4 1 9. Totals: 19-17-56
3-pointers: F 6 (Turner 2, Pryce 2, Simpkins, Brown), L 1 (Fuhrmann)
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