After dropping two of their first three regional match-ups, the Fairfield Central boy’s basketball team rebounded with two impressive home wins and was looking to make it three straight as they traveled to Chester Friday evening.

The Griffins encountered little trouble as they broke apart their arch-rivals for the second time, completing the season sweep with a 61-52 win.

“We don’t want to lose anymore games this year. If we want to contend for the region title then we can’t afford to lose,” Griffins stand-out Mikel Trapp stated. “We will have to play hard for the remainder of the season.”

Trapp’s attitude carried onto the court, scoring 16 of the Griffins 27 first-half points and coming up with several turnovers as FC took a 27-26 lead at halftime. Trapp led all Griffins with 19 points as Fairfield took sole possession of the second spot in the 3A Region IV standings.

The second half would get no better for the Cyclones. Guards Anthony Craig and NyJahwan McKinstry carried Fairfield Central over the final two periods, with McKinstry knocking down 7 points in the third and Craig closing the game out with 8 points in the fourth. Craig finished with 15 points while McKinstry added 11 as the Griffins notched their 13th win on the season.

“We never want to overlook any opponent because we know that if we don’t give 100 percent every night then any team can lose on any given night,” said Trapp. “So we prepare ourselves to go out and compete at the highest level every game. With two region losses we cannot afford to give anything but our best.”

After falling out of the Top 10 in the state’s 3A ranking in late December, the Griffins re-entered the rankings, taking the seven spot in this week’s Top 10 (according to Midlandpreps.com).

Chester’s stand-out Darren ‘Lil D’ Williams kept the game from getting out of hand, pouring in a game-best 21 points, including 13 in the second-half.

The Griffins improved to 13-6 on the season with a home match-up tonight against the Lower Richland Diamond Hornets that could determine this year’s region champion.

L-R has yet to lose a region contest this season. The first match-up between the two teams this year resulted in a Griffin’s 60-56 overtime loss in Columbia.

“We have to get this win. No excuses. We can’t make excuses as to why we didn’t win the first time we played (Lower Richland). We just have to be mentally and physically ready for them (tonight),” Trapp added.