By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jonathan Roessel sank the winning free throw in the closing seconds to cap a late rally as No. 2 Fairport (18-3) clinched a spot in the Section V Class AAA championship game with a 71-70 win over No. 3 Aquinas (13-9) at Gates Chili High School on Monday.
After connecting on just three field goals in the second quarter when they trailed by as many as 11 points, the Red Raiders hit seven times from the floor in the fourth quarter.
“We started moving the ball and taking the right shots,” said Fairport head coach Scott Fitch. “In the first half, I don’t know if we took the right shots. You take the right shots, you got a better chance of winning a ball game.”
Landon Brunken scored 11 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter. The senior guard’s and-one to start the final frame pulled Fairport within two at 56-54. His pull-up jumper with 4:03 remaining cut the deficit to one at 63-62.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JEROME DAVIS.
Brunken finished what teammate LaShard Lowry Jr. started. Limited because of foul trouble in the first half, Lowry hit three 3-pointers in the third quarter and scored eight straight points for Fairport during a four-possession sequence.
“He’s our motor, our engine,” Fitch said. “He’s what makes us go. When he gets going, everybody on the team starts to feel confident. We thrive off him.”
Lowry’s third three of the quarter pulled Fairport within two at 45-43 with less than four minutes remaining in the stanza. It was the first time Red Raiders been that close since trailing 24-22 with under six to go in the second quarter.
“He got off to a little slow start,” Fitch said. “I’m really proud of him for hanging in emotionally. That shows a lot of growth because I don’t know if last year he could have done that in a big game. I thought in the second half he was fantastic.”
Aquinas connected nine times from the floor and outscored Fairport 22-10 in the second quarter. Christian “Noonie” McCullough scored six of his 16 points, and Mackie Terry accounted for five of his 24 in the frame.
At the same time, Fairport went 14 straight possessions without making a field goal.
“My dad always says ‘You can’t shoot it for them,'” Fitch said referring to Jeff Fitch who won 459 games over 33 years as head coach at Fairport. “There’s so much truth to that. That’s one of the helpless feelings as a coach. You can’t just go out and help them do it. There’s so much truth to that.”
A halftime adjustment on the defensive end paid dividends with the offense.
“They were scoring at will,” Fitch said. “We couldn’t get a stop on D, so we changed the defense up. Went to something we just made up yesterday. It seemed to at least give us a little life and let us stay in front of them a little bit. That was big.
“I felt like we started moving the ball better. I didn’t think we moved the ball like we have all year. Sometimes that happens in sectionals. We started moving the ball a little better. Our offense started clicking which was huge. We just had to get some stops.”
Brunken scored on a layup with :20 seconds remaining to tie the game at 70.
Landon Brunken ties the game at 70 with :20 to go. pic.twitter.com/qm1Qve3HJ5
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 4, 2025
Lowry finished with 22 points in the win. Hadi Dergham added 10. Alexander Grejda had nine.
McCullough suffered an injury in the fourth and spent part of the quarter on the bench. The junior guard did not score in the frame.
Christian McCullough leads Derrion Battle for a layup. pic.twitter.com/7daLRtDjrG
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 4, 2025
Fairport will face top-seeded Rush-Henrietta in Saturday’s championship game. The Monroe County Division I rivals met twice during the season with the Royal Comets taking both decisions.
AQUINAS (13-9)
Christian McCullough 7 0-0 16, Mackie Terry 10 1-2 24, Derrion Battle 4 0-0 8, Jah Breedlove 4 5-5 14, Qunate Gillians 3 1-1 7, Carson Allen 1 0-0 2, Frankie Burgess 0 0-2 0 TOTALS 29 7-11 — 70
FAIRPORT (18-3)
Gannon Culver 1 0-0 2, LaShard Lowry Jr. 6 6-8 22, Alexander Grejda 3 2-4 8, Sam Roselli 1 0-0 3, Jonathan Roessel 0 1-2 1, Landon Brunken 12 1-1 25, Hadi Dergham 5 1-1 10 TOTALS 28 11-16 — 71
AQUINAS 17 22 15 16 — 70
FAIRPORT 20 10 21 20 — 71
3-point goals: AQUINAS 6 (McCullough 2, Mackie 3, Breedlove 1); FAIRPORT 6 (Lowry 4, Roselli 1, Dergham 1).
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