Fairborn’s Madison Musick (5) controls the ball against Northmont during girls sectional tournament basketball action at Wayne High School in Huber Heights on Tuesday night.
HUBER HEIGHTS — With their backs against the wall and their tournament future at stake, the Lady Skyhawks found a way to win.
Jaymee Veney overcame foul trouble to score 16 points with six rebounds, and Fairborn played big when it counted to beat Northmont 54-45 on Tuesday night in the second round of the Division I sectional tournament.
The Hawks (18-3) move on to face Miamisburg in the third round on Saturday night. Fairborn already played the Vikings twice this season and won both games.
“I think maybe it was good for us to have a close game like this in the first round to wake us up,” said Fairborn head coach Steve Hannaford. “We know Northmont is a pretty good team when they protect the basketball, and they did a good job for most of the game, but they had a few turnovers at the wrong time tonight.”
The T-Bolts (9-13) briefly held a 42-41 lead over the Hawks with four a half minutes left in the fourth after a 3-pointer from Courtney Sweet — who finished with a team-high 15 points on the evening — but Fairborn responded by scoring five of the next six points and never trailed the rest of the way.
Alexis Gassion scored nine points, Brooklyn Pumroy added eight, Brianna Breeding added seven and Chelsey Gevedon added six on a couple 3-pointers in an all-around effort for the GWOC South champion Hawks, who have now won six in a row.
“The girls played hard, and they sucked it up when they had to,” Hannaford said.
Neither team could scrape together any consistent momentum in the early goings, but Fairborn took a hit when Veney picked up two fouls in the first quarter, relegating her to the bench for the rest of the first half.
The Hawks didn’t wilt, however, and Madison Musick, Chelsea Reed and Gevedon all hit second-quarter 3-pointers to help give Fairborn a 26-17 lead late in the half.
Northmont’s Tatiana Miller, who finished with 10 points, hit a 3 to cut Fairborn’s lead to six.
The Skyhawks responded by holding the ball near half court for over two minutes while the Northmont zone defense stood fast. Fairborn never got any points out of the strategy, but neither did Northmont, and the Bolts were never able to take advantage of the two-plus minutes Veney wasn’t on the floor.
“We were up by six with Jaymee on the bench and the girls were tired, so we said, ‘Just hold it,’” Hannaford said. “We were playing against a team that was very emotional and playing in a zone defense, and it made no sense to be urgent. We had to accept the fact that we may have to do that to win, as boring as it might be.”
The scored the first seven points of the second half, but Fairborn regained control with buckets from Reed and Veney, and the Hawks held a 37-35 lead at the end of the third.
Fairborn took its final lead of the game on a Pumroy jumper with four minutes left in the fourth, and the Hawks went 5-for-11 from the free throw line and utilized three turnovers from Northmont to pull away and ice the game.
