The Fairfield junior high school Eagles basketball teams split evenly last week in games against the Brownsboro Bears.

Fairfield hosted the Bears to start the second round of district action.

Eighth grade A Eagles took charge of the game from the opening tip-off, staking a claim to an 11-2 first period lead and holding a 24-4 advantage at half-time.

The quintet added 18 points the third period and six in the fourth, giving up two and six, to win decisively 49-12.

“It was a pretty solid game for us. I thought we played very good defense,” coach Lynn Caffey reports.

He credits Bryson Gates and Danny Cockerell with good play on offense and rebounding.

Gates led scoring with 20 points and Cockerell kicked in 13 points.

Also scoring were: Larry Rose, 4; Cade Warren, 4; Coy Pierce, 4; Jacob Gallegos, 3; and Luke Rachel, 1.

Top rebounders were Gates, Cockerell and Rachel.

“I thought we played with good intensity, especially coming off some tough games in the Grapeland Tournament,” Caffey says. “I was real proud of our whole team.”

Fairfield seventh grade A cagers got off to a slow start against the Bears, trailing 2-17 at the half, rallied for 20 second half points, but came up just shy in a 24-25 loss.

“We started extremely slow the first half, scoring two points. The second half was a different story. It was like we arose from the dead,” coach Clint Elliott says.

The Eagles, he reports, tied the game and then went ahead by a point with 1.4 seconds remaining, but the Bears made a shot at the buzzer to take the victory.

Scoring for Fairfield were: Keishaun Cunningham, 7; Chance Carroll, 7; Michael Gibson, 7; Justin Morgan, 2; and Demarcus Taylor, 1.

FJHS eighth grade B cagers took a 6-4 lead in the opening period against Brownsboro and held a 13- 8 edge at the half before turning up the heat.

The quintet scored 19 points the third period and added six for good measure in the final stanza, giving up five and four, to claim a 38- 21 win.

“Offensively, we really came out in the third quarter and put up a lot of points,” coach Michael Posey reports. “Defensively, we played good all night, not allowing double digit points in any one quarter.”

Counting 26 points toward the win was Alex Ward.

Also scoring were: Chris Munoz, 6; Michael Smagghe, 2; Donald O’Brien, 2; and Calvin Gilliland, 2.

In seventh grade B action, the Eagles were blanked 0-22 the first half and managed just three points the second half in a 3-25 loss.

Scoring all three Fairfield points was Ben Wilson.

“It was a rough night, both offensively and defensively. The kids played hard all night and fought to the end,” Posey reports.

The Eagles play at Athens this Thursday.