CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Wyoming East won its first girls basketball state championship on Saturday, beating Fairmont Senior 54-26 in the Class AA title game.
“It feels really good,” said Wyoming East coach Angie Boninsegna. “It’s wonderful and we’ll root for the boys team next week.”
Kara Sandy provided huge production coming off the bench, finishing with 17 in the win, while sophomore point guard Gabby Lupardus scored 17 points as well.
“It’s such a blessing,” Lupardus said. “The community is awesome and they are so proud of us. I couldn’t be more blessed.”
Freshman Emily Saunders finished with eight points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots for the Warriors as well.
Sandy, another sophomore, had a strong freshman season in 2015 but missed a big portion of this year after battling back from a knee injury. Her effort on Saturday put her on the Class AA all-tournament team, along with Lupardus and Saunders.
“It just felt good to come back from my injury,” Sandy said. “I felt like my old self again.”
Wyoming East (23-2) took a 14-10 advantage after the first quarter and extended that lead to 28-17 at the break as Sandy scored half of her team’s first half points. The Warriors took full control in the third, adding five more points to their lead at 40-24 heading into the final stanza. The Polar Bears scored just two points in the fourth.
“Offensively, it was bad for us,” said Fairmont Senior coach Corey Hines. “But I felt we could not get into a defensive flow – that’s tough for a team like us. If we can’t get into a defensive flow, that’s what allows us to control the tempo.
“We can’t have the communication breakdowns,” he continued. “We have to know where the mid-line is at and you have to close-out. It all goes back to communication.”
Fairmont Senior (23-5), which had thrived off of forcing turnovers in the quarterfinals and semifinals, scored just two points off of 14 Wyoming East turnovers.
“I think we handled their pressure very well,” Lupardus said. “We weren’t sure what to expect, honestly. We knew their defense was very good and that they were a lot bigger than us, so we had to match up to them and play our game.”
It was Fairmont Senior’s second straight Class AA runner-up finish. Wyoming East, meanwhile, was in the tournament for the 10th time, finally breaking through for that first title.
“I’m speechless and that rarely happens,” Boninsegna said. “I really don’t think that it’s hit me yet. We had so much pressure on us this year because we were the number one team. I just enjoyed the ride with this group of young ladies.”
The Warriors had a strong following throughout the tournament – and that was certainly the case again on Saturday.
“It really benefits us to see our community and our school, how excited they are,” said Wyoming East’s Allie Lusk. “They really do help us control the tempo, they control our attitudes with the positivity they have. It’s awesome having everybody support us like that.”
Lusk, another sophomore, scored three points, grabbed five rebounds and collected three steals on the day. It’s a Wyoming East team that is full of young talent, proven to be mature beyond their years – and now, state champions.
“They’re a very laid back group of young ladies until they hit the court,” Boninsegna said. “The key to our system has been the unselfishness on the whole team. They really bond together.”
The game will air on TV on Root Sports Monday night (March 14) at 7:30 p.m. The complete broadcast can also be found online here.
Watch players and coaches react in postgame: