Gabby Plair tries to clear the ball after a scuffle, but the Tigers didn’t have quite enough, falling 45-41 to Kettering Fairmont in Dayton. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
The defending state champion showed a lot of moxie in rallying from a 14-point deficit, but ultimately a miserable 22.8-percent shooting night doomed their chances in a 45-41 defeat. The 27-0 Firebirds will try to secure their first title since 2013 on Saturday against 2025 runner-up Cincinnati Princeton.
Dayton, OH – By unleashing a relentless full-court press, Pickerington Central gave itself a chance to upend top-ranked, undefeated Kettering Fairmont in a Division I state semifinal Thursday.
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But as that frantic, ragged style helped the Tigers whittle away at a 14-point deficit and seize the momentum, it came with a price. The defending state champions seemed to run out of gas down the stretch and Fairmont escaped University of Dayton Arena with a hard-fought 45-41 victory.
“The pressure helped get us back in it, but unfortunately you can’t do that for 32 minutes,” Central coach Johnathan Hedgepeth said. “By waiting until the second half to turn up the press, our goal was to save as much energy as we could to make that push. But when your shots don’t fall … “
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The Tigers shot a season-worst 22.8 percent (13 for 57) from the field, including 2-of-19 from 3-point range. While their legs may have been gone to some extent from the effort they expended coming back, the Firebirds – who came in allowing opponents just 32.4 points per game – had plenty to do with it.
Fairmont (27-0) has allowed only two opponents to reach 50 points all season and one of them was Pickerington Central (22-4) in a 60-54 season-opening win last November 23rd.
“We set up our schedule specifically with games against teams like Pickerington Central, Olentangy and Cincinnati Princeton to prepare us for situations like that when we have to face a little adversity,” Fairmont coach Jeremey Finn said.
“I thought we did a really good job defensively. We run a few different defenses so we can switch things up and keep our opponent guessing. We did run into a bit of trouble with turnovers in the fourth quarter, but we were able to dig deep and pull it out.”
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Nico Cornett (15 points, four assists, five steals), Ms. Basketball finalist Kaylah Thornton (12 points, seven rebounds, four steals) and sophomore standout Janiyah Hargrave (12 points, five rebounds) did the heavy lifting for Fairmont, which will face 2025 runner-up Cincinnati Princeton (23-4) at 8:30 p.m. Saturday in quest of its first title since 2013.
Princeton used a 19-0 run in the third quarter to overtake Wadsworth 53-43 in the earlier semifinal.
London Johnson goes to the glass over Firebird defender Maliyah Bailey
Fairmont beat Princeton 57-47 in the regular season.
“This has been our goal since the beginning of the year, to win state,” Hargrave said. “It’s a relief to get through this one. Things got tough, but we just kept pushing.”
The Firebirds shot out to a 9-2 lead and pushed the bulge to 21-7 early in the second quarter. Central’s first nine possessions included 1 of 5 field goal shooting and five turnovers. It was that kind of night for the Tigers.
Trailing 29-17 at halftime, Central came out with guns blazing in the third quarter, forcing Finn to take two time outs to calm down his Firebirds and draw up new strategies.
Central cut the deficit to 36-33 in the final seconds of the third quarter on a three-point play by Ameera Jenkins.
Fairmont, however, refused to wilt. Cornett hit an ice-cold 3-point shot from the dead corner to jump start a 7-0 run.
Lena Buskard tries to deny the shot by Blossom Wallace.
Central pulled to 45-40 with 1:28 left on a putback by Blossom Wallace, but missed three shots down the stretch and couldn’t overtake the Firebirds.
“We knew we’d be in for a fight,” Hedgepeth said. “We got off to a slow start and that played into their hands. We kept thinking if a couple possessions went our way, it could change everything but we couldn’t get the shots to fall. We had open shots but just didn’t hit them. It was eerily similar to the first game against them when we were 2 for 23 on threes. Credit to them. They took us out of what we wanted to do.”
London Johnson (13 points, nine rebounds), Zoe Coleman (11 points, eight rebounds, four steals) and Wallace (eight points, nine rebounds, four steals) led the way for Central, which was shooting for a nine state title.
“I’m super proud of our effort tonight,” Hedgepeth said. “These young ladies battled injuries and persevered all year long. Give them a lot of kudos. We’ve been here four years in a row and not many people can say they’ve done that.”
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