CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Ahead of Thursday’s Class AA quarterfinal between No. 2 Fairmont Senior and No. 7 Lewis County, all signs pointed to a Polar Bears’ win.
FSHS had beaten the Minutemen by 58 points in the regular season and entered with a 24-1 record, compared to Lewis County’s 11-15 mark.
“We knew coming in we’d have to play a perfect game and you don’t get too many perfect games,” Minutemen coach Charles Simms said.
Indeed, you don’t, although the Polar Bears put together a dominant performance from the opening tip until the final buzzer to roll to a 92-35 win at the Charleston Coliseum.
“We did a great job of sharing the basketball, staying in the moment of the game and continuing to execute when the game was basically over,” Fairmont Senior coach David Retton said.
With the win, the Polar Bears will take on No. 3 Bluefield at 11:15 a.m. Friday in a semifinal.
Luke White scored Lewis County’s first six points to help the Minutemen hold a 6-4 lead. Positives were few and far between the rest of the way for Lewis, which was outscored 17-0 over the remainder of the first quarter as it fell behind by 15.
Six-foot-8 senior Jalen Bridges scored nine points in the opening period, and the Polar Bears maintained their level of play in the second quarter.
FSHS made 15-of-16 field-goal attempts in the second, with Dasilas Jones pouring in 11 points in the period, while Jaelin Johnson added eight.
Fairmont Senior went into halftime having made 23-of-32 field-goal attempts and with a 53-12 lead.
“We put the pressure on them and I felt like we hit the open man,” FSHS senior guard Zyon Dobbs said. “We got out and ran and got layup after layup. We got stops and that’s why.”
Jones had 16 first-half points, Bridges added 13 and Johnson scored eight.
The Minutemen committed 14 of their 20 turnovers in the opening half.
“After the first two or three minutes, we really played outstanding basketball,” Retton said.
While the Polar Bears’ starting five accounted for all 53 first-half points, the comfortable lead allowed Retton to work in reserves throughout the second half.
Fairmont Senior’s bench accounted for 25 of the team’s 39 second-half points, led by Trey Washenitz, who finished with seven points and eight rebounds.
“We’re like a brotherhood basically,” Bridges said, “and it’s really exciting when guys that normally don’t play that much are out there excited and knocking shots down.”
Jones led all players with 18 points and Johnson scored 16. Bridges and Dobbs added 15 and 14 points, respectively.
The aforementioned quartet combined to shoot 26-for-37 from the field.
White led the Minutemen with 14 points.
While the season ended with a lopsided loss, it marked Lewis County’s first trip to the state tournament since 1985.
“It didn’t come as a surprise to our team,” Simms said. “It came as a surprise to a lot of people around us. These kids believed from the very beginning. They always told me, ‘Coach we’re going.’”