CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The final piece to Poca’s perfect 27-0 season was the Dots’ toughest yet.
Down 16 points in the second quarter, Poca kept chipping away to eventually take the Class AA championship over Fairmont Senior, 57-53.
Poca won its first title since 1997 and became the first unbeaten boys champion since Paden City did it in 1987 under coach Bob Burton.
“It does mean something extra to go undefeated,” said Poca coach Allen Osborne. “That’s hard to do. I met Coach Burton (after the game) and I have a lot of respect for what he went through.
“It’s hard—every night you’re getting somebody’s best shot. These guys were ranked No. 1 from the first poll to the last. It’s tough to do it. It’s special and I’m so happy for these guys.”
Noah Frampton finished with 27 points for the Dots, who won every other game this season by double digits.
MORE: Highlights of Poca’s Class AA championship
The Dots turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, leading to 14 Fairmont points. After the break, the Dots committed just one turnover.
“They took better care of the basketball (in the second half),” said Fairmont Senior coach David Retton. “I think our speed maybe caught them off-guard a little bit and they adjusted to the speed of the game. Good teams do that, they make adjustments on the fly or in the locker room.”
Fairmont Senior (23-3), who hit 11 of its 17 first shots in route to an incredible start, led 20-5 after the first quarter thanks to an 18-0 run.
“These guys have great character,” Osborne said. “I was concerned when we were down 20-5, because the game can get away from you real quick. The big thing was that we just wanted to hold our own, get into the half and make a couple of adjustments. We knew we had a chance to win. These guys weren’t going to quit.”
Poca used a 15-10 second quarter to close its deficit to 30-20 at the break. The Dots continued to chip away in the third as an Elijah Cuffee layup-and-one closed Poca’s deficit to 35-30. Fairmont Senior led 38-34 entering the fourth.
“We were just trying to survive,” Osborne said. “We just had to keep plugging and plugging. We had to handle the ball a little bit better and take better shots. Fairmont is good—they’re quick and fast. We haven’t played anyone that fast this year and it took a quarter, a quarter-and-a-half to adjust to it.”
Poca’s Noah Frampton opened up scoring in the final quarter with a 3 to put the Dots within a point, 38-37. Poca completed its comeback by taking over the lead with 2:24 to go on a Cuffee layup. It was Poca’s first lead since scoring the game’s first basket 12 seconds in.
Christian Buckley’s bucket at the 1:06 mark gave the Dots a 49-46 lead. Noah Frampton would hit four free throws over the next 30 seconds, putting the Dots up 53-47 and just 37.7 seconds to go.
Fairmont Senior’s Darhius Nunn hit a 3 with 2.6 seconds to go—cutting the deficit to 55-53—but it was too little too late.
Cuffee scored 14 and Luke Frampton added 10.
“I was just saying to give me the ball – I was going to step up and make free throws for my team (late),” Noah Frampton said. “If I’m not having a good game, someone else does. That’s the great thing about our team, someone always picks each other up. There’s not just one player out there, there’s five and I wouldn’t want to have another team.”
Jacob Casiluonova scored 13 points to lead the Polar Bears.
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