Defense leads Fairmont to D-I regional versus state champs
Pass after pass after pass. Thirty seconds, 45 seconds, sometimes more would come off the clock as Fairmont’s 2-3 zone defense cut off driving lines, discouraged passes to the post and pressured shooters. The Firebirds showed no mercy.
“That’s our strong suit, and we’ve definitely grown from last year to this year,” said Fairmont senior Madeline Westbeld. “It’s a lot of big bodies, and we’re really long. And we can move well, especially coming out on the shooters.”
Fairmont’s zone handcuffed Mercy McAuley and the Firebirds won 40-31 to move into Saturday’s noon regional final against topranked, unbeaten and defending state champion Mount Notre Dame at Princeton High School.
“Right now we’re just playing really good defensively,” Firebirds coach Jeremey Finn said. “Our zone has been pretty successful all year with our length and being real active and getting ball touches.”
Westbeld, the Firebirds’ 6-foot-3 wing bound for Notre Dame, scored her team’s first six points and finished with 12 and 11 rebounds. Madison Bartley, the team’s 6-4 post headed for Belmont University, had 17 points and 12 rebounds.
“To me Maddy’s the best player in the state if not higher than that,” Finn said. “When she gets going, our kids feed off of that energy that she has. So for her to get a good start like that put us in a really good spot.”
Mercy (19-6) was coming off a hot shooting day Saturday in a semifinal win over Wayne. But the Firebirds (25-2) held them to 31.4% shooting and 6 of 17 on 3-point attempts. Lexi Fleming scored 15 points and Alex Smith 10 on combined 8-of-22 shooting after the duo scored 35 against Wayne.
Still, long 3-pointers by Smith and Fleming keyed a 9-0 run that suddenly cut the Firebirds’ lead to 36-31 with three minutes left. But the Firebirds dug in on defense and forced even longer 3-point attempts.
“In the fourth quarter we made a goal that we wanted to get three stops in a row, and if we could do that we’d be in a really good spot,” Finn said.
The Firebirds avenged a nine-point loss to McAuley during the season. Saturday’s final is a rematch of the district final Fairmont lost to Mount Notre Dame last year.
“It’s redemption year,” Westbeld said. “This is what we came here for.”
Mount Notre Dame 69, Springboro 34: As Panthers coach Tom Benjamin walked across the floor of the empty gym, he turned and said, “Be sure to put in there how much we appreciate the support of the people in Springboro.”
Support from the community and from each other is what got the Panthers through the past 11 days. When junior varsity coach Wayne Kemper died on Feb. 23, the team decided to play the next day. So the Panthers beat Centerville, then Lakota West on Saturday to win the district title.
Benjamin told his team after the loss to Mount Notre Dame that he was proud of them for going 21-6 against a difficult schedule. But the message didn’t end there.
“I’m proud of what we were able to do in the face of a tragedy that I’m not sure I didn’t know if we would even be able to lift ourself up,” he said. “We found our way through the Centerville game and were here Saturday and played the best game we played this year. And, of course, tonight we couldn’t repeat that.”
MND (27-0) sliced through Springboro’s man-to-man defense and never looked back. KK Bransford scored 22 points to lead a balanced attack that Springboro couldn’t slow down. Jordan Hobbs led the Panthers with 14 points.
The slow start signaled to Benjamin that a couple of his players weren’t playing like they thought they belonged in a regional final.
“Next year we want to come back,” he said, “and be of the mind that we’re supposed to be here.”
Contact this contributing writer at jgilbert@cedarville. edu.