Fairborn’s Jaymee Veney (34) shoots as Bellbrook’s Kelly Neumann (40) defends during girls basketball action at Baker Middle School on Monday night in Fairborn.
Hawks pull away in final minutes to beat Bellbrook
By BOB?PUGH For the Greene County Dailies
FAIRBORN — The Bellbrook Lady Eagles traveled across county to take on the Fairborn Skyhawks Monday night and in a game that was closely contested until the final four minutes, Fairborn handed the Eagles a 52-40 defeat.
With both teams wanting to get into an up tempo game, physical defensive play dominated the first quarter as neither team could get untracked and Fairborn led just 6-4 heading into the second quarter.
Scoring finally picked up half way through the second quarter when, with Bellbrook ahead 12-11, Fairborn scored the next seven points and managed to go into half time with a 23-19 lead. Bellbrook stayed in the game by converting on 7-of-10 free throw attempts in the quarter.
Fairborn was unable to distance themselves from the Eagles in the third quarter and a Shelby Sigman 3-pointer for the Eagles tied the game at 27 all with 3:45 in the quarter, but Fairborn came right back again with another run of seven points to push out in front 35-30 after three quarters.
After Fairborn pushed its lead to 10 points at 40-30 just two minutes into the final quarter, the Eagles scored six-straight points resulting in a Fairborn timeout with 4:04 to play and the Skyhawks up 40-36.
It was then that the overall physical superiority of the Fairborn front line seemed to really take charge and the Eagles were unable to score again until a Sigman free throw with 45 seconds to play broke a run of 10 straight points by the Skyhawks, and it was then just a matter of playing out the final seconds.
The Eagles, while still not shooting well (27 percent), played a much stronger game than in their previous two losses at home, rebounding fairly well against the stronger Fairborn team, and committing only 13 turnovers, but simply don't have the muscle inside to challenge the GWOC teams on their schedule.
Sigman led the Eagle scoring with 11 points, G. Etter had 8, Erin Dorn 7, Leisha Crawford 6, Kelly Neumann 5 and Stacy Ulrich 2.
Freshman Alexis Gassion had 13 points, and Chelsea Reed and Jaymee Veney each added 10 points to lead Fairborn (15-3).
Crawford and Dorn shared the rebounding lead with 8 each. After shooting well from the line in the first half the Eagles made just 3-of-10 in the second half and that was a factor in the Skyhawks being able to pull away. The Eagles, now 12-6 on the year, travel to Little Miami on Thursday night in what promises to be another challenging road game.
