Turning the tide: Fairview rallies from early deficit to end Fillies’ memorable season
WEXFORD – The saying goes it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and that applied to Wednesday night’s PIAA girls basketball playoff game between Laurel Highlands and Fairview.
The Fillies broke out of the gate quickly in building a 12-0 lead but the Lady Tigers gradually turned the tide and outscored LH 20-10 in the fourth quarter to pull out a 45-36 win in a Class AAAA second-round game at North Allegheny High School.
Fairview (22-5), the District 10 champion, advances to Saturday’s quarterfinals. Laurel Highlands, the fourth-place team out of the WPIAL, ends arguably its best season at 21-5 after having played a program-record six postseason games.
Bre Heidt scored 18 points and Paige Garrity followed with 12 as the Lady Tigers’ methodical offense won out in the end against the Fillies’ usually tight defense.
“They don’t play physical, they wear you down mentally,” LH coach Stewart Davis said of Fairview. “They run their sets, they screen, they backdoor. It’s not that they get into you, they just keep moving.
“So they wore the girls down. In my rotation I’ve only got one coming off the bench and as the game went on I could see we were getting tired. I probably should’ve called more timeouts. It was the flow of the game and I was trying to wait for the media timeouts.”
Miya Harris tied for game-high honors with 18 points, including four 3-pointers for the Fillies. Ayrianna Sumpter added seven points and nine rebounds and Aierra Jenkins also scored seven points for LH.
Laurel Highlands came out hot, scoring the game’s first 12 points on 3-pointers by Taylor Irwin and Harris, a basket by Sumpter, two free throws by Harris and a bucket by Jenkins.
Fairvview finally got on the board with 3:18 left in the first quarter on Heidt’s basket, and two free throws by Ella Pizzo made it 12-4.
The Fillies pushed their advantage back up to 12 when they opened the second quarter with a 6-3 run, capped by a Harris 3-pointer, to make it 18-6. The Lady Tigers whittled the gap to 19-13 by halftime.
“The start was great,” Davis said. “We came out and were dumping it inside as we should. We did the same thing in the second quarter, we just started missing layups. They were there for us.”
Fairview started to gain momentum in the third quarter, scoring almost exclusively on driving layups and shots in close to pull within one, 26-25. Heidt scored eight points in the quarter which ended with a steal and layup by the Lady Tigers’ Jilly Agnello with one second left as LH was attempting to hold for the final shot.
Fairview took its first lead of the game on a basket by Garrity one minute into the fourth quarter and she followed with another driving bucket soon after.
Laurel Highlands tried to battle back and knotted the score twice on baskets by Harris who sank a 3-pointer to make it 31-31 with 3:38 remaining and hit a driving bank shot to make it 33-33 with three minutes left.
Fairview scored the next six points on two layups by Garrity and one by Heidt to go up 39-33 with 1:15 left and the Fillies were forced to foul at that point. The Lady Tigers made six of 10 free throws down the stretch to seal it.
“That team’s been in close games all season,” Davis pointed out. “They want to keep the score low and how they do that is go five, six, seven passes and wear you down. Then defensively they switch everything and they get after it. I take my hat off to that team.”
Davis was frustrated by the officiating in the second half and was hit with a technical foul at one point. Laurel Highlands shot nine free throws in the game but only one in the second half. Eight of the first 10 foul calls after halftime went against the Fillies, who added four more down the stretch when they were forced to foul after falling behind.
“I don’t usually say much about the referees afterwards but they can dictate a game,” Davis said. “I was bickering and telling them to make the call but I didn’t say anything crazy to deserve a technical. They made it personal towards me. It was an ego thing.”
Davis now has a two-year record of 32-17 at Laurel Highlands. The program had a combined 32 wins in the eight seasons before his arrival.
“This team was definitely resilient,” Davis said of his 2023-24 squad, which had no seniors. “This run here is what we called our revenge tour. I get everybody back next year.
“We’re going to get after it in the summer and come back ready to rock and roll next season.”