By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

JACKSON — Sometimes things just aren’t meant to be.

That’s the way it seemed for Rock Hill as the Fairfield Lady Lions outscored the Redwomen 8-2 in overtime to post a 43-37 win in the Division 3 district semifinals on Wednesday.

“It was not good night for us. We played hard. The effort was there. We couldn’t hit any shots,” said Redwomen head coach Eric Bailey.

“They were able to hit a couple of shots late and we couldn’t. Our rebounding was great and our defensive effort was there. We just couldn’t hit shots.”

Fairfield jumped in front by going on a 14-2 run to begin the first quarter as Faith Donley hit a 3-pointer and scored 5 points, Hailey Tolle had 5 points as she hit 3-of-3 at the line and Kassi Miller hit a 3-pointer.

But the Redwomen trailed 14-5 at the end of the quarter and then battled back in the second quarter to tie the game at one point before falling behind 21-18 at the half.

Hadyn Bailey drilled a trifecta as she and Hazley Matthews scored 4 points each in the comeback.

“They got out to the big lead but we kept going after that and came back and tied the game,” said coach Eric Bailey.

Each team scored 8 points in the third quarter. Bailey and Lola Hankins drained 3-pointers for Rock Hill and Hayleigh Risner got a bucket.

Peyton Magee had two 3-pointers and scored all of Fairfield’s point in the quarter.

Matthews hit a triple and scored 7 points and Hope Easterling got a basket as Rock Hill rallied to tie the game in the fourth quarter and force overtime.

Someone put a lid on the basket at the Rock Hill end of the gym.

Magee did most of the damage in overtime as she scored 7 of Rock Hill’s 8 points including 6-of-6 from the foul line.

Easterling’s basket was the only score for the Redwomen in the extra period.

Matthews scored 13 points while Hadyn Bailey and Easterling scored 7 points each as the Redwomen ended the season 17-7.

“This is a great group of girls,” said coach Bailey.

“They worked hard in practice and played hard in the games. They won 17 games and their first sectional in two decades. I’m really proud of every single one of them.”

Magee scored 18 points for Fairfield (19-5).

Rock Hill beat Fairfield 54-52 in the regular season.

Fairfield    14 7 8 6 8 = 43

Rock Hill 5 13 8 9 2 = 35

LEESBURG FAIRFIELD (19-5): Hailey Tolle 1 0 5-7 7, Hannah Hamilton 0 0 1-3 1, Kassi Miller 0 2 0-0 6, Peyton Magee 3 2 6-8 18, Faith Donley 1 1 2-4 7, Jobey Hattan 0 1 1-2 4. Totals: 5 6 15-24 43. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: Tolle.

ROCK HILL (17-7): Hadyn Bailey 0 2 1-2 7, Hope Easterling 2 0 3-4 7, Hazley Matthews 3 1 4-4 13, Hayleigh Risner 1 0 0-0 2, J’lynn Risner 1 0 1-2 3, Lola Hankins 1 1 0-0 5, Josie Kidd 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 8 4 9-12 37 Fouls: 19. Fouled out: Bailey, J. Risner.