Recently, we unveiled our plan to name area programs’ top five players of the 21st century, which sits at 25 seasons in both football and basketball.
Reminder, this is based on high school career performance ONLY. This is by no means a definitive list and, if anything, is encouraging debate on potential omissions to this list.
Through exhaustive research, reaching out to former coaches and players and our own personal opinion, here is the OTH Quarter Century Team for Fairfield Falcons girls basketball.
Note: The list is in alphabetical order
Haley Bechtel
Fairfield went 17-6 and won a Sectional title when Haley Bechtel was a sophomore as she was named Goshen News All-Area. In her junior season, the Falcons improved to 18-4 and then were 16-6 during her senior season in 2012. Bechtel averaged 18.9 points per game as a junior and crept closer to 1,000 career points, which she surpassed in the first game of her senior season. Bechtel missed the majority of her senior season due to an ACL tear during volleyball, but returned for the last two games of the regular season as well as the postseason. In her final high school game, she had 18 points in a near upset of NorthWood.
Brea Garber
Garber headlined the Falcons’ historic 2022-23 state title run, surpassing 1,000 career points (1,399 total) while leading a state-best defense and averaging 15 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 3.8 assists per game. She capped her senior year by scoring 19 in the 3A state final—setting title-game records at the free throw line—and was honored with the IHSAA’s Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award. A consensus all-state pick (IBCA Large School; Hoosier Basketball Magazine First Team) and Top-60 selection, she was strong too as a junior where she averaged 15.8 points per game and shot 77 percent from the free throw line. Garber moved on to Indiana Wesleyan.
Lindsay Gangloff
Gangloff was Fairfield’s leading scorer during the 2005-06 season. She averaged 15.9 points, 3.2 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game as a senior and reached 1,000 career points in February of that year. She was twice named all-Northeast Corner Conference squad and to the Goshen News All-Area team. She was also selected to play in the Sunburst All-Star game in South Bend. As a junior, Gangloff helped Fairfield to an 18-5 record.
Courtney Herschberger
Herschberger scored 12.4 per game for the Fairfield Lady Falcons who were 21-6, winning the Class 2A sectional at Bremen in 2009. She was a Goshen News All-Area player as both a junior and as a senior but her work senior year pushed Fairfield to their best record to that point in the decade and the best record until the 2021-2022 school year. During her junior year as an All-Area second team player, Herschberger averaged 13.1 points per game.
Erica Zook
Fairfield won 24 games and reached the semi-state round for the first time ever on the hands of Zook as their senior point guard in 2018. Averaging 11.7 points, 3.7 assists and 2.1 steals per game, Zook helped propel the Falcons on both ends of the floor beating Hamilton Heights for a Regional title. Zook was named All-Northeast Corner Conference, IBCA All-State Honorable Mention and to the News-Sentinel All-Area team.
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