Fairfield’s Luke Stephens soars in for a shot attempt against Wawasee Tuesday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

BENTON – Fairfield took care of business Tuesday night, winning the boys basketball season opener 52-27 over Wawasee. A look at the score would suggest a game that was a little farther than the object in the mirror may appear.

The game was only a three-possession contest in the fourth quarter, the score sitting at 30-22 with Wawasee having a chance to get the deficit to two possessions. The Warriors, as much as they were able to tread water through three quarters, couldn’t survive its ice cold shooting night. Wawasee made just two shots in the fourth, falling victim to a 16-3 Fairfield run to blow the score wide open. The Falcons capped the game on a 22-7 binge in the fourth quarter, aided by 12-15 makes from the free throw line.

Jairus Boyer led Wawasee with 16 points.

“I can’t fault our kids and their effort,” said Wawasee head coach Jon Everingham. “I’m not mad at all with a lot of the things we were able to do, especially with defense and pressure on the ball. We just couldn’t hit shots.

“I decided as it got away from us in the fourth, I sacrificed the final three minutes or so. We brought in some guys where we could create a full court-type game. We are learning how we can use it in the future. At that point, it wasn’t about the score, but something we can go to the film and see and develop from.”

The first half wasn’t the tidal wave of carryover emotions for Fairfield, which came in the defending sectional champion for the first time in seven years. Instead, neither team scored until the 3:48 mark of the first quarter when Luke Stephens hit a three.

But Fairfield would go onto a 14-2 lead, aided by a putback at the buzzer by Caleb Goeglein. The extra opportunity converted by Goeglein would be one of three that Fairfield would connect on, Cordell Hofer putting in a shot at the halftime buzzer and Peyton Faldoe hitting an eight-footer with a second left in the third. The six points loomed large at a 30-20 juncture heading into the fourth, and then into the final period when Wawasee was working on chipping down the lead to three possessions.

Fairfield held Trevon Coleman to just five points on 11 shot attempts.

“The little things make a big difference,” Everingham noted. “We missed a boxout in the first quarter and we fell asleep on a little curl to end the half. That’s four points that make their nine-point lead at the half (22-13) seem a lot closer, and they’re not jumping into the lockerroom. I didn’t feel too bad being down eight in the third quarter, but then they get that third buzzer beater, and we’re in trouble.”

To Fairfield’s credit, the Falcons were 15-21 from the free throw line in the game, and got its stars involved often. Stephens, the team’s leading scorer from a year ago, was efficient in getting his 13 points. Hofer was 6-8 from the floor and finished with 15 points and Faldoe was 6-8 from the line in the fourth quarter to come through with a sneaky 14 points. Fairfield also won the rebounding war, 35-21.

Jairus Boyer was the high man for the Warriors with 16 points and Fairfield did a number on Wawasee’s leading returning scorer, Trevon Coleman, limiting him to 2-11 shooting and five points, none in the second half.

Wawasee was 9-39 from the floor (23 percent) and 4-23 from long range.

“They played behind on Trey, and we felt like they would do that based on the film of how they handled him last year,” Everingham said. “He got a couple buckets early, but we couldn’t get anyone else going to help draw in some of their defenders and give him some better looks. We just never got it rolling tonight.”

Wawasee (0-1) will be off until Dec. 1 with its home opener against Manchester. The originally-scheduled game with Angola this Saturday was moved to Jan. 6 to accommodate the Hornets’ football postseason run.

Fairfield’s JV rolled over Wawasee 47-23.

Fairfield guard Peyton Faldoe hits a jumper with 1.2 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Falcons a 30-20 lead.