FAIRBORN — It was an idea so good, they brought it to Greene County.

Jon Payne is the athletic director at Fairborn High School. Jim Smerz is the AD at Beavercreek. Before the two were at their current locations, they were at West Carrollton and Miamisburg. It was there the two hatched plans for an all-day hoop marathon, an event that is in its second year at Fairborn and Beavercreek.

“We got the idea a long time ago,” Smerz said. “We just carried the idea over to here.”

The idea is to have Fairborn’s and Beavercreek’s boys and girls varsity and reserve teams play a quadruple-header during the holidays, starting with the boys reserve at 2:30 p.m. The event gives the schools a chance to take advantage of the week off and visiting alumni to build up interest in all the teams and the schools.

“It was a great draw, especially over the holiday,” Payne said. “People would be in town visiting when they normally wouldn’t be. We did it for the rivalry, especially from the student body and fan standpoint.”

Smerz said: “The years I’ve been doing it, it has been tremendous. The kids loved it and you get a lot of spirit going for the girls and boys teams. Last year we actually had more fans at the girls (varsity) game than the boys. It was extremely successful.”

Putting the event together takes careful organizing, especially from the athletic directors.

“The athletic director has all the headaches,” Fairborn girls varsity coach Steve Hannaford said. “But a lot of people come out and most enjoy it.

The biggest problem is the facilities. With so many players and teams playing at the same venue during the same day, it is the greatest challenge.

“Locker room facilities are a nightmare,” Payne said. “You have to have visiting locker rooms, separate boys and girls locker rooms.

“You need to find a spot for the officials, and if one of them is a female, you need a spot for them. The biggest obstacle is the locker room situation.”

Things went fairly smooth Tuesday until a power outage took out the scorer’s table and both scoreboards during the fourth quarter of the girls varsity game.

That prolonged an already long day for those working the table. Things rebounded for five minutes until the buzzer stuck and one of the scoreboards went blank.

Things were smoother for the victors. The Fairborn girls varsity defeated Beavercreek 46-32 behind 12 points from Alexis Gassion, 10 from Brianna Gladney and a strong third quarter.

“We didn’t want to happen what happened against Springboro,” Hannaford said. “We came out flat in the third then, and we didn’t want to do it again.

The Beavercreek boys varsity took down Fairborn 73-49, thanks to a massive second quarter 16-2 run and a double-double from Tyler Reasoner, who scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds.

As for the day itself, the players felt it was a good experience.

“I think it was a good idea,” Fairborn senior Brooklyn Pumroy said.

“It brought out the fans and built up a lot of hype.”

Fairborn public address announcer Steve Ross, who did all four games and whose voice still resonated until to the last, felt both schools came out winners.

“Every town ought to do this,” Ross said. “They even do it in college down in Cincinnati. It’s a great way to build up the community.”

Pumroy returns: Pumroy returned Tuesday from an ACL tear she suffered in the summer. The Marquette commit scored eight points.

She suffered the tear last June and had surgery later that month.

“It’s been a long recovery and a lot of hard work,” Pumroy said.

“I was nervous and I couldn’t get into the game mindset, but it felt good. I am sore.”