Fairland hopes lessons learned in losses help shape a state championship run

After making the state semifinals a year ago, the Dragons hope to win it all this season

BERLIN, Ohio - All losses are not created the same. That is a lesson that has been taught to the Fairland girls basketball team over the past 10 months.

Last season, Fairland won its first 27 games and had dreams of an undefeated season. Of cutting down the nets at the state championship game. Of hoisting the trophy. But sometimes, the best laid plans just never come together, as the Dragons lost to Northwest in the state semifinals.

That memory has been engrained in the minds of the players and isn't going away any time soon.

"We're never letting that go," Fairland senior Bree Allen said after Fairland's 58-45 win over Gilmour Academy at the Classic in the Country on Monday. "We are going to be into our adult lives and be like dang, why did we suck (that day)."

That loss made the Dragons realize that what was missing from the equation to become a state champion was to play better defense. So this season, they have put in more time defensively for those days that the offense couldn't get it going.

"Last year when we lost that game, it was like our offense couldn't help us," Fairland senior Kylee Bruce said. "No shots would fall and then we couldn't turn to our defense because we just couldn't stop anybody. So this year it's like when we can't make shots, we turn to our defense to help."

Both Allen and Bruce were named as McDonald's All-American nominees last week, with the final rosters being announced later this month. The duo was surprised to receive the honor, but their coach wasn't.

"I am obviously super excited for them," Fairland head coach Jon Buchanan said. "I'm honestly not surprised. They deserve it and they have had great careers.

But being an All-American nominee doesn't mean the girls are exempt from getting an earful from the head coach when needed. And Allen got just that on Sunday when she was subbed out. Before she could sit, Buchanan told her he needed her to be better on defense after Gilmour scored on consecutive possessions.

"I just have to let it go," Allen said about Buchanan's yelling. "But it's pretty much every day he's yelling at us and so I just learned to shake it off. And just take (what he he is saying) obviously."

The willingness of his senior leaders to take hard coaching allows Buchanan to show that nobody gets special treatment in the program.

"I think (them listening) gives me some credibility across the board," Buchanan said. "They know that if I'm gonna yell at Bree Allen, who is three-time All-Ohio and has a full ride scholarship, then I'm definitely going to yell at anybody else. So it allows me to have like that ability to do that."

And the players know that the head coach is only trying to prepare them for what's next in their journey. It's something the players appreciate.

"All the coaches, they're actually there to prepare us for college," Bruce said. "They don't care what we do here. It's more what are we going to do in the future. So from a freshman, I was called a feather, (asked) why am I so small. He's made me grow. He's made everybody else grow. And he teaches us. he tells us bluntly, what's wrong and he's not gonna beat around the bush."

Speaking of teaching moments, one came at the Dragons hard on Jan. 8 in a  55-51 loss at Portsmouth. But unlike the loss to Northwest, this one gave the girls time to figure out what needed to improve while the season was still going. 

"Getting that loss early really set us back and made us realize we aren't the best team," said Allen, a Tiffin University commit. "We still need to work on certain things and get better."

Bruce, a Malone University commit, said her senior teammate had a message for the team the moment that loss ended.

"And as soon as we went to the locker room, Bree said that doesn't change the outcome, we still can get this," Bruce said. "We're not shooting for (a conference) title, we're shooting for a state title. That's not going to wreck our mission."

-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh