By John Bombatch
BEAVERCREEK — The host Beavercreek Beavers drained 16 3-point shots to claim a convincing 83-44 win over Fairborn, Monday night at the Ed Zink Fieldhouse.
And this was just the first game of the season.
With a balanced attack that saw four Beavercreek players score in double digits, with two others tossing in seven each, Beavers coach Ed Zink felt pretty good about his team’s season debut …. except for the propensity to foul Fairborn pretty often.
“For the first time out, I thought we played pretty well,” Zink said. “I thought we shot the ball pretty well, I thought we played fairly well defensively. We played real well, except for the fouling. And we let them get some offensive rebounding. So those are things we’ve gotta fix. We can’t foul that many times (12 first-half fouls and seven in the second half), but being the first time out I thought our kids played well, and they played pretty darned hard.”
Keaira Youngblood accounted for five of the 3-pointers, as part of her game-leading 19-point performance. She had 14 of that total by halftime. Meanwhile, Carmen Williams and Cori Dilsavor tossed in four treys each and both finished with 14 points. Lexi Moore didn’t hit a three-pointer, but she finished with 10 points, while Bailey Draughn and Taylor Steinbrunner each hit a 3-pointer to finish with seven points each. Kristen Williams (five points) also hit a 3-pointer for the Beavers (1-0).
“We’ve got a lot of kids on this team who can shoot them … I don’t know if we can call it our strength, but we will shoot a lot of three’s,” Zink said.
Fairborn coach Billy Harchick thought his team played hard, but said Beavercreek’s shooting was just too much.
“They played hard, but Beavercreek just shot the lights out. What can you do when they’re hitting from everywhere?” he asked. “I’m proud of my guys. We have a lot of work to do, but we knew that coming in. I thought Evelyn (Oktavec) played well for us, and freshman Khala Powell did a great job in her first varsity game. Jana (Brown-Griffith) did a nice job for us down low. Those players did a great job.”
Powell finished with a team-high 16 points in her varsity debut; Oktavec finished with a dozen points on four 3-pointers; and Brown-Griffith battled inside and finished with six points for the Skyhawks (0-1).
Both teams return to the hardwood on Wednesday. Fairborn will host Lebanon at 7 p.m. in the Baker Middle School gym; Beavercreek hits the road to play a 7:30 p.m. contest at Xenia High.
