Fairfield girls rally past Russellville

By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
HANCEVILLE - Midway through the third quarter on Tuesday, the Russellville girls appeared on the verge of pulling off another postseason upset.
Lyndi Brown's three-pointer had just given the Lady Golden Tigers an eight-point lead, and they were less than 12 minutes away from knocking off No. 4 Fairfield and advancing to the regional finals.
Then the wheels fell off.
"We stopped talking. We stopped communicating," said senior center Quinetta Phillips, whose strong first-half performance helped Russellville build an 11-point lead. "We stopped doing everything."
Suddenly, simply inbounding the ball against Fairfield's relentless full-court pressure became a difficult task. Getting the ball in the basket became downright impossible.
Russellville endured a stretch of nearly 10 minutes without a field goal as Fairfield took control with a 26-2 run en route to defeating the Lady Golden Tigers 53-41 in the semifinals of the Class 5A Northwest Regional Tournament at Wallace State's Tom Drake Coliseum.
Brown's three-pointer made it 35-27 with 3:40 left in the third quarter, but Russellville (11-17) would not make another basket until a layup by Sasha Willingham with 2:05 remaining in the game.
In between, Fairfield (28-6) forced the Lady Golden Tigers into numerous turnovers that led to easy baskets.
Russellville finished with 24 turnovers, 15 of them after halftime.
After Brown's trey, a layup by Hali Moore sparked a 13-0 spurt by Fairfield.
Antoria Elliott banked in a three-pointer with 1:00 left in the third quarter to put the Lady Tigers on top 36-35, their first lead since the game's opening minutes.
Jackie Sanders had six points early in the fourth quarter as Fairfield pulled away to avoid the upset.
Russellville could do no wrong in the first half, particularly Phillips, who went 6-for-7 from the field and scored 12 points as the Lady Golden Tigers posted her up inside time and again.
After Fairfield jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead, Russellville tied the game on three-pointers by Meghan Quillen and Jordan Dollar.
Phillips then had six points in an 8-2 run to close the first quarter as Russellville built a 14-8 lead.
Fairfield trimmed the lead to four, but Brown nailed a three-pointer and Phillips had a pair of baskets to put Russellville on top 27-16 with 1:20 left in the first half.
Fairfield closed the first half on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to five.
Phillips finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. Brown added eight points, and Dollar and Trapp each had six.
DeWanna Bonner, who has committed to play next season at Auburn, led Fairfield with 17 points. Moore added 11 points, and Sanders had nine.
Bostick, though disappointed with the loss, praised his players for their late-season surge.