The Fairfield Eagles began the 2022 half of the basketball season with a pair of district wins over the Elkhart Elks and Teague Lions.
Tuesday, the Eagles hosted the Elkhart Elks. Fairfield missed some shots early and the Elks had the early lead, but the Eagles went on a run and pulled away to win 76-54.
The Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead with Dekerione Cunningham getting a steal and score and Kamren Griffin hitting a three pointer. Elkhart battled back to take a 7-5 lead and the Rex Bean hit a runner and Jy’Ren Canady scored to give the Eagles their lead for good to end the first period with Fairfield ahead 11-9.
JacCorey Daniels found Camron Daniels for a pass and a slam dunk from the baseline and an emphatic add to the lead. Griffin scored and Bean hit a three pointer to extend the lead to 20-11. The lead grew to double figures when Caleb George flew in and grabbed an offensive rebound and laid it off glass for the 26-16 lead. Elkhart cut the lead to 30-24 and Daniels had a steal in the final seconds and scored at the buzzer for the 32-24 Fairfield lead at the half.
The Eagles began the second half on a 10-0 run. Bean hit a three pointer from the corner and Cunningham led the fast break for a score. He stole the pass after the score and passed to Griffin and he hit a three pointer and George scored on a nice move on the Elkhart defender.
Fairfield held the double-digit lead throughout the remainder of the game and won 76-54.
The Eagles traveled to Teague to take on the Lions on Friday night in the first phase of the battle of Freestone County.
The guards were getting the ball close to the basket early with Pierre Allgood scored off of a pass from George and Cunningham finding Allgood for the short jumper. Jehmel Rice answered with a score and Tylin Randle scored twice for the Teague lead 6-4. Cunningham hit a pair of three pointers and Fairfield built a 12-6 lead and the Eagle defense forced Teague to miss their final 12 shots in the period and Fairfield led 12-8 after one period.
Rice and Randle scored in the early moments of the second period to tie the game at 12-12. Bean scored and Griffin scored eight straight for the Eagles to take a 24-14 lead with two minutes remaining in the first half. Rice was fouled on a three pointer and he hit two of the three foul shots and cut the lead to 29-18 at the half.
Both teams picked up the tempo in the third period and cut three points off the lead. Rice connected on three three pointers and Wayland Allison scored eight points, twice off an offensive rebound. Fairfield countered with three pointers by four different players, Bean, Cunningham, Griffin and Allgood. Daniels battled inside with a pair of shots and the Eagles led 50-42 heading into the final period.
The Eagles maintained the lead throughout the final period despite Rice scoring 22 of his game high 29 points in the second half.
Cunningham scored 17 points to lead the Eagles and Griffin added 14 in the Fairfield win.
