The Firebirds beat Olentangy 66-45 to win the Division I, Region 2 championship on Friday night at the Ohio Expo Center’s Taft Coliseum.
Fairmont advanced to play Pickerington Central — which beat New Albany 59-28 in the Region 3 title game — in a D-I state semifinal at 8 p.m. Thursday at University of Dayton Arena.
“I know our fans are excited,” said Firebirds coach Jeremey Finn. “Some of our past kids that have graduated and have their banners up there are really happy for us. So it’s a good community piece for all of us.”
Fairmont senior Kaylah Thornton, an Ohio Ms. Basketball candidate, scored a game-high 22 points and sophomore Janiyah Hargrave added 14 as the Firebirds improved to 26-0.
Fairmont led 16-14 after the first quarter and extended their lead to 24-18 on a hustle play by Thornton, who saved the ball from going out of bounds under the Firebirds basket and passed it to Hargrave — who passed it right back to Thornton for a layup.
The Warriors, led by 21 points from Ms. Basketball candidate Whitney Stafford, cut the lead to one point at 26-25 with under four minutes to go in the first half, forcing a Firebirds timeout.
From that point forward, it was all Firebirds.
“We settled in there after a little bit,” Finn said. “You know, it’s tough because it’s such a big game and you do things that you’re not used to doing. I think after we took a timeout, and everybody took a deep breath, we started playing pretty well in the second half. I thought we did a really good job defensively. We were patient on offense, just really proud of the girls overall. They did a really good job in that respect.”
They went on a 10-3 run to take a 36-28 halftime lead. After the break, they outscored the Warriors 14-5 in the third quarter to take a 17-point lead.
“We worked so hard from the beginning of the season to now, and I’m really, really, really happy about that,” Thornton said.
The Warriors — who fell to Fairmont 50-32 on Dec. 27 — wouldn’t get closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
“Obviously, we wanted to limit turnovers, try to hold them to one shot, but they do a really good job,” said Olentangy coach Klarke Ransome. “They’re not only really skilled and long and athletic, but they play really hard, right? And when you get a group that kind of puts all of that together, it makes things difficult, right? I thought our girls battled, they competed, but at the end of the day, I think their length, their athleticism, gave us some problems down the stretch. They got after it today.”
The Firebirds advanced to the state semifinals for the fifth time in program history and for the first time since 2013. After back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2011 and 2012, the Firebirds won the state championship in 2013, beating Twinsburg 52-48.
Finn expects a large contingent of Fairmont fans to fill UD Arena on Thursday night.
“It’s just a special place and to be able to go back with this group, they were able to watch when they were youngsters, too,” Finn said. “It’s good, like my daughter and her friends (can watch). It’s just that tradition that’s been built and keeps going on.”
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