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It all came down to a last second shot for the Fairfield Lions basketball team (11-12) on Tuesday night as they traveled to Northwest High School to take on fellow Southern Hills Athletic Conference opponent Manchester. Thankfully, the ball was in the hands of a player who has been clutch before for the Lions, Ethan Putnam. Putnam’s only basket of the fourth quarter came from behind the arc as the buzzer sounded. The ball found it’s way through the basket and in, to put the Lions up 70-69 with no time remaining and headed to the sectional finals.
The game was back and forth throughout, but in the first half, the Lions found a way to stay on top. They outscored their opponent in both of the first two quarters and held a 32-20 lead going into the half.
In the third quarter, Manchester turned it up. One player in particular, Kailen Cox turned it way up hitting three threes in the eight minutes of play and totaling 15 points. Manchester outscored Fairfield 25-17 overall.
The Manchester Greyhounds outscored the Lions in the fourth quarter as well, but in the end, Putnam came up big for Fairfield, sinking the three at the end to win the game 70-69.
The Fairfield Lions will move on to the sectional finals on to play the No. seeded Sciotoville (14-4) on Tuesday, February 23 at Northwest High School starting at 6:15.
Box:
FHS – 15 17 17 21 – 70
MHS – 11 9 25 24 – 69
Fairfield: Evans 9 1/2 – 19; Harris 7 2/3 – 16; Daulton 3(3) – 15; Putnam 1(2) 1/4 – 9; Walker 1(1) 1/2 – 6; J. Current 2 1/2 – 5. Totals: 23(6) 6/13 – 70
Manchester: Cox 3(7) 3/7 – 30; Thornburg 5 3/4 – 13; Young 5 – 10; Frost 4 1/3 – 9; Combs 2 3/4 – 7. Totals: 19(7) 10/18 – 69.
Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer
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