CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With such little separation between No. 1 Chapmanville and No. 2 Fairmont Senior, Tigers’ coach Brad Napier figured his team would need one of its better performances of the season in Saturday’s Class AA title game.
Napier got even more than he was hoping for, and Chapmanville led for the final 27:44 of action to repeat as state champions with a 60-46 victory.
“We played probably our best game of the season and we knew we had to,” Napier said. “Fairmont is really, really good and their players play the right way and play extremely hard.
“Hats off to our kids, because they executed the game plan to perfection.”
A big part of the Tigers’ execution was the play of 6-foot-9 center Obinna Anochili-Killen, who narrowly missed out on a triple-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks.
“Obinna’s energy and effort was off the charts all game,” Napier said.
Fairmont Senior (26-2) led 7-2 less than two minutes into the game, but Anochili-Killen scored five points during a 9-0 run to help give Chapmanville (26-2) the lead for good.
The advantage grew to 16-8 before the Polar Bears’ Zyon Dobbs made a jumper, but the Polar Bears got no closer the rest of the first half.
Andrew Shull made three 3-pointers in the second quarter, the last of which came 1:05 before halftime to send the Tigers into the break with a 29-17 lead.
Fairmont Senior made only 7-of-26 shots in the first half for 27 percent shooting, while the Tigers were 11-of-23 from the field.
“They’re very good defensively,” FSHS coach David Retton said. “When you have a guy like that in the middle, it changes things. He had eight blocked shots, and we went at him many, many times.
“I felt like there were opportunities to kick the ball out, but we continued to go at him. We either took shots that weren’t good or he got them out of there.”
But the Polar Bears looked like a different team to start the third quarter and got to within 31-27 on a Jalen Bridges 3.
Dobbs’ bucket at the 4:01 mark of the third made it a two-point game, but it was all Tigers the rest of the way.
Devin Collins had a conventional three-point play 14 seconds later, then made two free throws to stretch the lead to seven.
“We just liked the matchup we had,” Collins said. “I felt I could take the guy guarding me to the hoop.”
Anochili-Killen had a dunk and made two free throws late in the third to up the advantage to 40-31.
“We knew they were going to make a run,” Napier said. “They’re too good of a team to not put a string of buckets and stops together. We had to buckle down and go on a run ourselves.”
Bridges made a triple to start the fourth, but that was as close as FSHS got.
Collins answered with a bucket inside and Philip Mullins’ three-point play made it an 11-point game with 6:03 remaining.
The Polar Bears got a 3 from Dasilas Jones to cut their deficit to eight, but after Collins answered with a jumper at the 4:02 mark, the Tigers led by double digits the rest of the way.
“Devin was unbelievable in the second half and kind of took the game over,” Collins said.
Chapmanville shot 46.2 percent from the field, made 21-of-25 free throws and had only six turnovers against one of the state’s best defensive teams.
“They’re just not going to throw it away,” Dobbs said. “They make good reads and run their offense well. We couldn’t rattle them as much as other teams. They were poised with the ball.”
Collins had a team-high 17 points to go with seven rebounds, while Shull and Mullins scored 13 apiece.
Fairmont Senior made 16-of-59 shots for 27.1 percent shooting.
“It’s tough to overcome that,” Retton said.
Bridges led the Polar Bears with 17 points and Jones scored 13 points.
Dobbs had seven points and eight assists to go with three blocks in defeat.
It marked the final high school game for Fairmont Senior’s aforementioned trio.
The Polar Bears have been in five straight AA title games, two of which they won. Their only three losses the last two seasons are against Chapmanville.
“What stands out the most is the quality of people these guys are,” Retton said. “The quality of character. They’re awesome kids man. They’re good basketball players, but they’re great kids — and kids that I’ve loved coaching.”
CLASS AA ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Jalen Bridges, Fairmont Senior
Dasilas Jones, Fairmont Senior
Zyon Dobbs, Fairmont Senior
Devin Collins, Chapmanville
Obinna Anochili-Killen, Chapmanville
Andrew Shull, Chapmanville
Tanner Kennedy, Robert C. Byrd
Braeden Crews, Bluefield