CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It wouldn’t come as any surprise if Chapmanville and Fairmont Senior meet in Saturday’s Class AA title game for a third straight season.
The Tigers (23-2) are unbeaten against state competition this season and have done nothing to lose their title as the favorite after handing the Polar Bears their only loss last season to win the championship.
The Polar Bears, meanwhile, are 24-1 overall with their lone setback coming in late December at Chapmanville, 49-46. Since winning the AA title in 2017, FSHS is 49-2 overall and both losses have coming against the Tigers.
“I hope the appreciation never gets old. We’re fortunate to be here,” Polar Bears’ coach David Retton said. “We’ve worked to be here, but at the same time it’s a great opportunity and experience. We want them to enjoy the experience and be relaxed, yet have a sense of purpose of what our goal is.”
The teams are two wins away from squaring off with another championship on the line, but the third through sixth seeds in the state tournament each enter with at least 19 wins.
First, Chapmanville will face No. 8 Grafton (11-15) on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., while Fairmont Senior meets No. 7 Lewis County (11-15) in the 1 p.m. tilt the same day.
Also Thursday: No. 3 Bluefield (20-2) vs. No. 6 Poca (19-6) at 9:30 a.m.; and No. 4 Oak Hill (20-5) vs. No. 5 Robert C. Byrd (19-5) at 9 p.m.
The Bearcats and Minutemen come to Charleston in a similar spot as not many people expected either team to be here.
Grafton was the No. 4 seed in its own section and defeated Berkeley Springs at home, before posting road victories against Frankfort and Keyser. That allowed the Bearcats to stay home and defeat North Marion, 61-50, in a regional co-final.
GHS will have a tall task trying to contain the Tigers, who have not allowed an in-state opponent to surpass 60 points in any game this season.
Chapmanville also has five players averaging double-figure scoring, led by 6-foot-8 Devin Collins at 15.8 points and 6-9 Obinna Anochili-Killen at 15.2 points.
“Chapmanville has a ton of size and skill,” Grafton coach Mike Johnson said. “You see a big team like that and think they’re going to be post-oriented, but they shoot the ball extremely well too. They hit seventeen 3s in their regional win over Nitro.
“Being undersized, we’ll have to make some adjustments to keep them out of the lane as much as possible. We have to make shots, because we’re not going to get second and third chances because of their length and their size.”
Lewis County, meanwhile, lost a hard-fought sectional title game at Nicholas County, 72-68, but rebounded to win at Bridgeport, 53-36, in a regional co-final.
The Minutemen lost eight of nine at one point in the regular season, but put forth a strong effort against the Indians at the perfect time.
“We knew we could play with them,” Minutemen coach Charles Simms said. “We knew if we played the kind of game we needed to play we could beat them.
“Defense has been the key the whole time. I told the kids whenever you get to the postseason, teams that play best defense are the teams that move on.”
Fairmont Senior handled Lewis County, 90-42, back on Dec. in an early-season Big 10 Conference matchup.
For the Mintemen to have a chance at pulling an upset, they’ll have to slow the Polar Bears’ senior trio of Jalen Bridges, Zyon Dobbs and Dasilas Jones.
The 6-8 Bridges averages 21.8 points, while Dobbs and Jones form the starting backcourt and combine to average more than 31 points.
“Lewis County is a different team. Regardless of what we did the first game, they’ve improved a bunch,” Retton said. “They do a great job of spreading you out and run ball screen after ball screen. They have guys that can shoot and when you have guys that can shoot, it’s always a big concern.”
Bluefield won each of its first 13 games this season, before losing two in a row. Since then, the Beavers have won seven straight, including a regular season win over Capital, a sectional win over Shady Spring and a regional co-final triumph against Wyoming East.
The Beavers have eight seniors on their roster and junior guard Braden Crews is averaging 23.4 points.
Bluefield will battle a Poca team that edged Nitro, 62-59, for a sectional title and upset Logan, 61-55, to secure its state tournament spot.
The Dots have won eight straight overall and have one of the state’s most heralded freshman in Isaac McKneely (17.3 ppg).
The 4-5 matchup between the Red Devils and Flying Eagles is a regular-season rematch from a Dec. 29 contest that Oak Hill won, 66-60.
After sweeping Bridgeport in a pair of regular season meetings, RCB overcame a loss to the Indians in the sectional title and locked up its spot in the field of eight with a 72-55 victory at Nicholas County.
RCB has four players averaging double-figure scoring and guard Tanner Kennedy is the lone senior who sees extensive action.
“I was worried about Tanner Kennedy getting to play in the Civic Center,” RCB coach Bill Bennett said. “Not a lot of kids have gone through our program over the years and not gotten there. He’s so deserving with all the work that he’s put in and the leadership he’s given our team this year. I couldn’t have been more excited for him.”
The Red Devils navigated through a challenging schedule for an impressive season. In addition to the win over RCB, Oak Hill split two regular season meetings with Bluefield, meaning the Red Devils know they’re capable of playing with the cream of the crop in AA.
Oak Hill has also been tested in the postseason, beating Wyoming East, 55-51, to win its section, before recording a 60-53 victory over Shady Spring in a regional co-final.
Senior Andrew Workd leads the Red Devils with 17.7 points per game and often uses his athleticism and quickness to get to the baset.
“We played our best defensive games all year in the last two games,” Red Devils’ coach Benitez Jackson said. “We played really hard defensively and rebounded the ball really well. I was happy for our guys and they bought into what we wanted to do defensively.
“We have to do what we’ve been doing. Our defense leads us into transition and feeds into what we want to do offensively, which is get out and run. But they’re tough to guard because they have multiple guys who can dribble, pass and shoot.”
CLASS AA BOYS STATE TOURNAMENT
Thursday, March 14
Game 1: 9:30 a.m. – No. 3 Bluefield vs. No. 6 Poca
Game 2: 1 p.m. – No. 2 Fairmont Senior vs. No. 7 Lewis County
Game 3: 5:30 p.m. – No. 1 Chapmanville vs. No. 8 Grafton
Game 4: 9 p.m. – No. 4 Oak Hill vs. No. 5 Robert C. Byrd
Friday, March 15
Game 5: 11:15 a.m. – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner
Game 6: 7:15 p.m. – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner
Saturday, March 16
2:30 p.m. – Class AA state championship