(Girls State Final) Kettering Fairmont 61 Cincinnati Princeton 55
What a great way to end the 2025–2026 girls' basketball season. Kettering Fairmont and Cincinnati Princeton left everything out on the floor and left the fans longing for more. Kamryn Lowe scored the game's first points, hitting a short shot in the paint to put Princeton up 2-0. From there, the excitement would grow until the roof in Dayton was almost blown off the place. The quarter ended with Fairmont up 18-7. Fairmont hit 6-14 from the floor, and the Vikings hit just 3-13. The quarter was up-tempo with enough defense to make things difficult on both offenses, at times.
In the second quarter the Vikings cut into the lead by hitting 4–9 shots from the floor, cutting the lead to 25-19. In the quarter. Both teams would get six points apiece inside the paint. A big advantage in the quarter for the Vikings was that they got five second-chance points. For the Firebirds, they had a nice 4-point advantage on turnovers.
After three, we had a one-point game with the Firebirds leading 34-31. Of the 21 points scored in the quarter, 18 were scored inside as both teams found things easier getting inside than they did hit long jumpers.
The final quarter brought as much excitement as the first three combined, with the biggest moment coming with seconds left and the Firebirds down three. Kaylah Thorton, who struggled with her outside shot a little in this one, nailed a deep three to lock things up and send the game into overtime. This time the teams combine to score 23 of 35 points from outside the paint.
In the overtime frame the game was locked at 53 apiece with 1:29 remaining. From there the Firebirds caught enough fire to pull away for the six-point win.
Fairmont had three girls in double figures, with Janiyah Hargrave leading the way with 23 points on 9-22 shooting. Kaylah Thornton checked in with 19 and Nico Cornett with 13. As a team the Firebirds hit 36.4%. They did hit six three pointers.
For the Vikings, they too had three players in double figures. Leading the attack was Erin Thomas with 19, but she was just 5-13 from the field. Kiara Harris checked in with 18 points. She hit 6-12 from the field. Kamryn Lowe had 10, but she hit just 4-13 from the field. As a team the Vikings hit 37.8%.
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