FAIRFIELD STUDENTS, AND a “Thing,” cheer on the Lady Eagles in a district playoff game against the Brownsboro Lady Bears held Friday night at Navarro College. By winning the contest, the Lady Eagles advance to the post season playoffs as the first place team from District 20-AAA A win Friday night by Fairfield and a loss by Crockett gave the Eagles varsity basketball team its first outright district championship title since 1997.

The Fairfield high school squad is posting an 8-2 record to lead District 20-AAA standings with one game left to play, and the Crockett Bulldogs are in second with a 6-3 mark.

Eagles head coach Joey Worley reports that the team has shared the championship a couple times in recent years, but this is the first outright claim they’ve had on the crown in 13 years.

Athens and Brownsboro are tied for third at 5-4, Palestine Westwood is 2-7 and Palestine is 1-8.

The Eagles started last week poorly, losing to Crockett on the road 47-61.

“They killed us on the boards,” Worley reports. “We gave them too many second chance baskets.”

Crockett started the game on fire, making four three-pointers the first period to jump out to a 23- 10 lead over Fairfield the first period.

The Eagles tallied 19 points the second period to narrow the game to six points at intermission, 29- 35.

“We did a good job the second quarter trying to get back into the game,” Worley says.

However, the FHS quintet was outscored by seven points the third period to fall behind 37-50, and lost the final stanza 10-11 to drop the decision.

The Eagles coach reports that the team pulled within two points in the third period and were within six at one point in the fourth, but was forced to foul late to try and get possession. Crockett made nine of 11 free throws in the fourth period.

Senior guard Willie Tatum led Fairfield scoring with 26 points, including three treys, but was the only Eagle to reach double digits.

Also scoring were: Tevin Green, 9; LaDarius Brackens, 6; Dillon Burgess, 4; and Josh Brown, 2.

Fairfield shot 62 percent from the free throw line, making 12 of 21 attempts.

Green led rebounding with 11, a couple off his per-game average, and Brackens got only one, when he averages six a game.

The Eagles recovered by Friday night when they hosted the Palestine Wildcats and got a win to help secure the district title.

Fairfield started slowly, though, trailing 10-12 the first period, but added 18 second period points to go ahead 28-19 by the halftime buzzer.

The FHS quintet tallied 19 points the third period and 12 in the fourth, giving up 10 and 13, to claim a 60- 42 win.

“We defended them pretty well,” Worley says.

Reaching double digits were Tatum, 17 points, and Anthony Price and Green, 14 points each.

“It’s good any time you get three guys in double figures,” Worley points out.

Also scoring were: Dominique Owens, 7; Brackens, 4; Brown, 3; and Evan Simpson, 1.

Owens led rebounding with nine, while Green grabbed eight off the board and blocked seven shots.

Fairfield shot a low 33 percent from the charity stripe, making six of 18 attempts.

The Eagles will get a bye in the bi-district round of the playoffs, then will face either Rusk, the third place team from 18-AAA, or the loser of the Tatum-Bullard game for second place in 17-AAA.

Bi-district between Rusk and either Tatum or Bullard will be played Monday or Tuesday, and the area round for the Eagles must be played Feb. 25-27.

In junior varsity action last week, the Eagles trailed the Bulldogs 14-32 at the half and dropped a 41-51 decision.

Scoring for Fairfield were: Garrett Thompson, 8; Tad Cannon, 5; Davis, 5; Shakeal Carter, 5; Jared DeFrance, 5; Darius Roberts, 4; Cooper Vandiver, 3; Brady Johnson, 2; and A.J. Gabriel, 1.

The FHS freshmen quintet started slowly against the Bulldogs, trailing 13-20 the first period and 20-26 at the half before taking control of the game.

Eagle cagers tallied 20 points the third period and 17 in the fourth, giving up 12 and 15, to turn the deficit into a 57-53 victory.

Leading the offensive effort with 14 points was Will Akers. Joining him in double digits were Cooper Cole, 12 points, and Deonte Carr, 11 points.

Also scoring were: Josh Munoz, 9; Jackson, 6; Hayden Hill, 5; Zach Pratt, 4; Will Doyle, 2; and Welch, 2.

The frosh made 10 of 19 free throw tries, or 53 percent of their attempts.

Fairfield jv and frosh cagers did not play Palestine.