Photos by Steven Wright | Greene County News
Fairborn junior Journey Bradford (2) grabs a rebound off a missed free throw during Friday’s game at Butler. The Skyhawks lost 35-27 to the Aviators in the first game of the girls-boys doubleheader.
Fairborn senior Sean Townsend (10) drives to the basket on the fast break for two points during the first half of the game at Butler. Fairborn was defeated 53-39 in the second game of the evening.
Caught up in the middle of several Butler defenders is Fairborn freshman Aubrey Jones (24).
Fairborn senior Taiyou Williams (23) tries to find room along the baseline.
Fairborn freshman Jayla Smalls (0) battles for position on a rebound attempt.
Coming out of nowhere on the play to grab the rebound is Fairborn senior Bryan Crackle (24). He dribbled into the corner and hit a three for the Skyhawks.
VANDALIA — Fairborn lost both games of a doubleheader featuring the boys and girls teams on Friday.
In the two games at Butler, the girls started the evening with a 35-27 defeat while the boys followed with a 53-39 loss of its own.
The girls losing streak continued, but the game became one of the few times they could sense a win was possible heading into the fourth quarter of a game.
Friday’s contest was just the fourth time during the 63-game losing skid that the Skyhawks margin of defeat was under 10 points and it was the first occurrence since Dec. 21, 2022.
Facing the first-place Aviators, who had won the first meeting of the season by 41, Fairborn remained within one or two possessions of the lead throughout the first half of Friday’s game until a three in the final minute of the second quarter pushed Butler’s advantage to 20-13 heading into halftime.
Still up by 10 heading to the fourth, a pair of baskets by Brooklynn Kimball early in the quarter immediately sparked Fairborn’s energy and began to rattle Butler’s ability to bring the ball up the floor.
With 4:17 remaining, Butler decided to take the air out of the ball and held still for more than a minute to drain out the clock. As soon as the Aviators began to run an offensive play, Kimball came up with a steal but missed a layup in transition that would have cut the deficit to five.
From there Butler continued to hold the ball rather than run offense, forcing Fairborn to send them to the free throw line. The Skyhawks weren’t able to draw any closer.
Kimball led Fairborn with 15 points.
In the boys game, a slow paced first half saw Fairborn score seven points in the final two minutes before halftime to lead 15-14 at the break.
The lid was shut in the third quarter, however, as Butler scored the first 19 points of the second half to build a comfortable lead. Fairborn was not able to get back under single digits the remainder of the game.
Taiyou Williams scored 11 for Fairborn in the defeat, while Jadon Larson added eight.
Fairborn’s girls squad is now 0-15 this season, while the boys dropped to 7-6 overall.
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.
