FAIRFIELD SENIOR GUARD Willie Tatum goes horizontal on his way to the basket. After completing the regular season with the District 20-AAA championship crown, the Fairfield high school Eagles started a march through the playoffs that takes them to the Region III tournament this weekend at Sam Houston State University.

Because of the district title, the Eagles drew a bye in the bi-district playoff round, then knocked off Bullard 45-41 Friday night in the area game and beat Mexia 43-40 in the regional quarterfinal game played Tuesday at Ennis.

That puts Fairfield on the SHSU court at 6:15 p.m. this Friday against Hardin Jefferson, the second place team from District 21-AAA and a state semi finalist team a year ago.

The road has not been easy getting to the region tourney—-both Fairfield playoff games to date were come-from-behind wins.

“All year the kids kind of hung in there,” FHS head coach Joey Worley says. “The game’s not always pretty, but they battle and give themselves a chance at the end.”

GETTING HANG TIME, Eagles senior guard LaDarius Brackens puts up a shot against Mexia. In the Mexia contest, the FHS quintet started out on fire, scoring the first five points of the game before the Blackcats got on the board with a free throw three minutes into the first period.

Mexia rallied at that point, however, and the Eagles ended the opening stanza with a 11-9 lead.

Almost as soon as second period play began, the score was tied 11-all and the Eagles found themselves trailing 11-15 in just a couple of minutes before they could stop the bleeding.

Pulling within three points, senior guard LaDarius Brackens stepped to the free throw line to make two when the Mexia coach was called for a technical foul, narrowing the tally to 18-19, and a 3-point play by freshman Anthony Price provided a 21-19 advantage at the half.

A field goal and 3-point shot gave Mexia a 24-21 lead early in the third period and a trey at the buzzer put the Blackcats ahead 25- 31 as the Eagle offense was held to just four points.

The Mexia quintet opened the final stanza with another long range bomb before Fairfield started a rally to narrow the contest to 34-36 with just over three minutes remaining.

Fairfield gave up a couple of quick baskets to drop six points back, then mounted a final surge. Senior guard Willie Tatum provided seven points, five of them on free throws, and senior post Tevin Green added a pair of charity tosses to run the score to 43.

A tough Eagle defense kept the Blackcats out of the points column for the final 2:15 of the game, which ended on a pair of missed 3-point shots by Mexia.

“LaDarius had a really good game and Evan (Simpson) did a good job guarding D.J. Weathers,” Worley says.

The Eagles played Mexia twice earlier in the season, beating the Blackcats in the Fairfield Invitational and losing a contest at Mexia.

In the game at Mexia, Blackcats sophomore Mister Carroll scored 30 points, but he was held to just four points Monday night.

Fairfield scoring was led by Tatum, 14 points with six of those coming on free throws. Brackens was in double digits with 11 points.

Also scoring were: Green, 8; Simpson, 5; Price, 3; and Dominique Owens, 2.

The Eagles shot 66 percent from the free throw line, making 14 of 21 attempts.

The Blackcats made only five trips to the charity stripe and made just one of those shots.

In their first playoff appearance, at the area game, the Eagles came from a half-time deficit to beat Bullard 45-41.

The Eagles opened with eight points to trail by one in the first period and added nine second period points for a 17-24 deficit at the half.

In the third period, the FHS quintet picked up the pace for 17 points to claim a slim 34-32 lead.

Fairfield cagers out scored Bullard 9-11 to claim the win and advance.

Leading the offensive effort with 16 points was Brackens, while Green reached double digits with 11 points.

Also scoring were: Owens, 9; Tatum, 6; Simpson, 2; and Price, 1.

Connecting once from 3- point range was Brackens.

The Eagles shot just 40 percent from the free throw line, making 10 of 25 attempts.

Fairfield is posting a 24- 7 record for the season and Worley points out that six of the losses were to teams that also were playing region quarterfinals matchups.

“They’ve played some good teams,” the coach says.

Headed to SHSU this weekend are Fairfield, Hardin Jefferson, Hudson and Silsbee.

Hudson and Silsbee play at 8 p.m. Friday and the tourney championship is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.