To keep their basketball legs in shape and to go up against some of the best teams in Texas, the Fairfield high school Eagles played in the 51st annual Whataburger Tournament last week in Fort Worth.

The Eagles played in the blue division, one of three divisions in the tourney, against teams from A-AAA and private schools.

Fairfield cagers won their opening game, then dropped the next two against state ranked teams.

Ponder, ranked the top team in Class AA this season, won the blue division title with a championship game victory over Burkburnet.

Argyle, ranked fourth in Class AAA, took third, Peaster was fourth, Krum finished fifth and Cayuga took the consolation title.

"Overall, it was a good tournament for us. To compete against that type of teams is good for us," FHS head coach Joey Worley says.

The Eagles opened against Cayuga, the top ranked team in Class A, and took a 69-66 win in overtime.

"We were real pleased with our first game. Cayuga is talented," Worley says.

Fairfield opened slowly against the Wildcats, trailing 8-15 the first period and 25- 38 at the half-time buzzer.

Cayuga, Worley reports, started the contest with aggressive play, which put them into foul trouble the second half. Eventually, a total of three Wildcats fouled out of the game, including their two top scorers.

The Eagles won the third period 21-7 to take a 46-45 lead after three periods, but let the Wildcats back end to wind up regulation play in a 60-all tie.

Fairfield scored nine points in overtime, five of them from the free throw line, to claim a 69-66 first round win.

Leading scorer for the Eagles was sophomore post Chris Burns, 20 points.

Junior post Tevin Green took four charges the first half, blocked five shots, grabbed 13 rebounds and scored 12 points to keep the squad in the game.

Others scoring were: Andre Gilley, 12; Darian Scott, 10; Chris Jones, 9; and Josh Lynch, 6.

Connecting from long range were Jones, with a pair of treys, and Scott, with a lone 3-pointer.

The Eagles shot just 50 percent from the free throw line, making 14 of 28 attempts.

After the first game, the tourney became decidedly tougher for the Eagles as they faced off against eventual champion Ponder.

Fairfield kept up with Ponder for the first part of the opening period, but wound up trailing 18-31 in the first and 25-45 at intermission.

The Eagles scored nine points in the third period and 13 in the fourth, giving up 19 and 17, to drop a 47-81 decision.

"We didn't battle very well after we got behind," Worley says. "We felt they could have played better."

The only Eagles to reach double digits in the game was Burns, with 11 points.

Others scoring were: Scott, 7; Gilley, 7; Jones, 7; Lynch, 6; Justin Terry, 4; Green, 3; and Evan Simpson, 2.

Scott, Burns and Jones each connected on a 3-point shot.

Fairfield shot 66 percent from the free throw line, making six of nine attempts.

The competition did not get any easier for the third game, but the Eagles did take the lead for a short time before falling to Brock, ranked sixth in Class AA, 68- 72.

The Eagles fell behind 14- 21 the first period and dropped another couple of points to the deficit in the second period to trail 31-36 at half-time.

Fairfield rallied for 22 points in the third period to take a 53-51 lead, but were out scored by six points, 15-21, in the final stanza.

"We didn't close the game as well as we would have liked," Worley says.

The coach reports they got into foul trouble—-Scott and Gilley fouled out—-and turned the ball over three times in the last 90 seconds of the game.

Putting up double figures were Green, 21 points, and Burns, 20 points.

Others scoring were: Lynch, 9; Scott, 8; Gilley, 4; Jones, 2; Simpson, 2; and Terry, 2.

The Eagles shot 77 percent from the free throw line, making 10 of 13 percent, with Green turning in a 7-for-8 night from the charity stripe.

Fairfield was scheduled to host Mexia early this week, head to Groesbeck this Friday and close out the pre district season Tuesday at home against Teague.