BATAVIA — Deshawne Crim, Ray Coney and the top-seeded Fairfield High School boys basketball team were in their element Friday night.
This time, it lasted all game long.
Crim scored a game-high 19 points, Coney had 17 and Fairfield ran away with a 58-40 Division I sectional final victory over St. Xavier at West Clermont.
“We never want to get out of our own game,” Crim said of the Indians’ fast-paced play. “That’s what teams want to do. They want us to play down our game. We just want to keep playing our game the whole game. That’s the goal.”
The Bombers had it their way against the Indians during the regular season. St. Xavier handed Fairfield its first loss — a 51-48 nailbiter on Dec. 21.
Friday night was different.
“We got to choose the pace in this game,” Indians coach DJ Wyrick said. “In the past, with some of the other (Greater Catholic League) schools, we hadn’t been able to do that.”
Fairfield, which has won six in a row, reaches the district finals for a second straight time. The Indians square off against Wayne next Saturday at UD Arena at a time to be determined.
“The speed was much different,” Wyrick said. “We were able to able to pressure the ball much more. We’re able to get downhill. We didn’t make shots in the first half, and we still had a three-point lead. We just told our guys at the half, ‘If we can continue to pressure this way and continue to speed them up, shots are going to fall in the second half.’”
The shots fell. There wasn’t much of a separation in the first half as Fairfield moved out to a 13-12 first-quarter lead.
The Indians (21-4), who got help from top to bottom of the roster, led by at least more than three the rest of the way.
“I’m really proud of our guys. I think we played 10 guys tonight,” Wyrick said. “We had a lot of guys step up. Obviously, there were a million fouls called in the first half, and part of that is on us because we try to pressure so much early.
“We did a good job of adjusting in the second half with getting our hands off while still maintaining that pressure.”
Fairfield outscored St. Xavier 12-3 right out of the third-quarter gate. Coney contributed to six of those points, and the Indians led 37-27 after three quarters.
“We just want to come out and put everything on the court,” Coney said. “We’re hot right now. We’re just going to continue to be hot — keep the streak going. We just want to think about winning, and that’s what we’re going to do every day.”
Aamir Rogers slammed one home with 5 minutes remaining to put Fairfield up 48-32, and the Indians’ continued pressure allowed Crim to finish it off with eight straight points after a couple Coney free throws.
“It was really the defense,” Crim said. “We came prepared, and we came ready to play. We guarded. We really wanted this game. We wanted to get back (at St. Xavier).”
Rogers finished with nine points for Fairfield, which had seven scoring contributors. The Indians fired 16 of 20 (80%) from the free throw line — including 11 of 12 in the second half.
Donovan Waleskowski scored a team-high 14 points for the Bombers, who ended their season at 13-12.
Fairfield last beat St. Xavier 58-52 in a season opener during the 2016-17 campaign. The Bombers had won three straight against the Indians up until Friday night.
