Free throws help Fairfield capture Indiana Class 3A girls basketball title

Falcons make 25 free throws in 49-42 victory

Phillip B. Wilson | Feb 25, 2023

By Phillip B. Wilson | Photos by Tyler Hart

INDIANAPOLIS — Pour some sugar on the Fairfield Falcons, although there’s nothing sweet about facing the state’s stingiest defense, a group of girls whose seniors have no clue about the identity of 1980s rock stars Def Leppard.

They’ve been more interested in building upon a staunch reputation of allowing a Hoosier-best 28.3 points per game. The reputation of turning basketball games into unsightly exercises in futility had preceded them and the Falcons sure were finicky again in Saturday’s Class 3A girls state championship at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Despite making just 10 field goals, Fairfield hit 25 of 35 free throws and limited Corydon Central to 30.6 percent shooting for an ugly 49-42 victory.

“A lot of this is we wanted to do it for our community,” said 11th-year Fairfield coach Brodie Garber. “We wanted to be able to say that Fairfield has won one. You should see these girls in front of the elementary kids, it’s like Def Leppard in the ‘80s. The girls go crazy for them, they’re standing there waiting for them, ‘Sign this, sign that, sign my arm.’ To be able to do that as a group here, it’s really, really special.”

The first-time finalists from Goshen in Elkhart Country never trailed in the second half. Fairfield (28-2) managed just seven points in the third quarter, but Corydon Central (27-3) was so out of sorts, the Panthers mustered merely two.

“We’re not out to win some beauty contest,” Garber said. “We’re out here to kind of slug it out on the defensive end and then just take advantage of some things on the offensive end. Looking back at it, the defense we’ve played in this tournament has been tremendous.”

Corydon Central senior guard Ava Weber led all scorers with 23 points but on 7-of-17 shooting, including misses on four 3-point attempts. None of her teammates hit double digits. And the rest of the Panthers made just 8 of 32 shots from the field.
Corydon Central got close at 44-40 late in the game, but misfired a 3-point airball and never got closer.

“We nearly had what it took,” Weber said of winning a state title.

Panthers coach Josh Conrad recalled how he had hoped after last year that this team could take the next step and reach the finals. Consider the proverbial bar raised for the program.

“We haven’t really been faced with a good 2-3 defense like they were,” said Panthers senior guard Bailey Orme. “But we got here. That’s still a good accomplishment to me.”

Added senior guard Bre Edwards, “It was a ride to remember.”

Garber’s senior daughter, Brea, scored a team-high 19 points, but she had to work hard, too. She shot just 3 of 14 from the field, missing all three treys, but sank 13 of 15 free throws, and received the mental attitude award.

This senior group got a taste of the big stage last season in losing at semi-state.

“After last year, we did not want that same feeling again,” Brea Garber said. “We wanted to make it to state, not only just make it but win it.”

Senior guard Morgan Gawthrop had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Senior guard Bailey Willard added 12 points.

“To bring these four up,” coach Garber said of his four seniors, “I don’t know that you guys really wanted four people, but I wasn’t going to come up here with anyone else.”

These seniors were second-graders when he was hired as head coach.

“They come in as girls and they leave as women,” coach Garber said. “What I appreciate about Brea so much is deep down she just wants to win. There’s times she could have scored more, maybe her average could have bumped up, she could have been on this or that all-state team. She doesn’t care. She just wants to win. She wants her teammates to have success. She would much rather have 15 assists than 15 points.

“For being the best player on the team, she is a team player first.”

The Falcons hit only one of five shots from the field in the fourth quarter, but sank 14 of 21 foul shots. That’s five more points than Corydon Central’s 9 of 13 at the line for the game.

That unrelenting defense never let up. The Panthers were just 3 of 26 (11.5 percent) from 3-point range.

“That’s what wins games,” coach Garber said. “Offense comes and goes. Defense can be there every single night.”

Willard smiled as she spoke of when she was the young, impressionable player who idolized the older role models in the program.

“I remember our seventh grade year when the high-schoolers went to semi-state,” Willard said. “I remember going to those games and just dreaming that it would be us some day. Now that it is us, it’s just an unreal feeling.”

Brea Garber reflected on the final minute, when the realization hit that she was about to become a state champion.

“It’s still sinking in right now,” she said.

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