— By Taylor Kennedy
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — East Fairmont used a stellar offensive showing to defeat Scott 77-60 as part of the Big 10/Cardinal Conference Challenge on Saturday.
East Fairmont saw four players post double-figure performances, including senior Evan Parr, who led the Bees with 20 points.
“It is big, but this challenge we have with our conferences is great,” East Fairmont head coach Tyrone Asterino said. “We defended home turf here. We wanted to come out and represent our conference and get a win. Scott is a good team. [Reece Carden] is a great player and he can score. I thought we did a decent job, but he got loose a few times. We have to build off this.”
Scott suffered its first loss after advancing to the Class AAA semifinals last season.
Carden accounted for 34 of his team’s 60 total points. Carden also connected on five 3s for half of his team’s production from long range and scored 20 second-half points, including 11 in the fourth quarter.
Parr opened the game by connecting on his first five field goals. He posted 12 of the Bees’ 23 points in the opening period, while connecting on two triples.
“It was great to get this win and put us, maybe, on the map looking to go to Charleston and make a big run,” Parr said.
On the flip side, the EFHS defense held the Skyhawks to 11 points, with eight coming from Carden.
“We got out of character early and then played from behind and never settled into the game,” said Scott head coach Shawn Ballard. “We knew we would have a lot of guys playing varsity for the first time with first-game jitters. They are a good team who did a lot of good things. They did not let our defensive pressure disrupt them.”
The Bees (2-0) used an 8-0 second-quarter spurt to widens their lead to 39-21.
The Skyhawks scored the final five points of the quarter to go into halftime of their season opener trailing 39-26.
“We shot the ball well from the floor in the first half,” Asterino said. “In the second half, we did not shoot it as well. We are good when we make our shots and execute offensively. Those two things have to happen because if we do not, that will deter us from getting wins.”
East Fairmont opened the third quarter by scoring the first five points. However, Scott would respond by outscoring EFHS 10-2 following a triple from Louden White with 3:45 remaining.
The Bees would countered with their own 9-3 run until Carden drained a 3 off the wing as the buzzer third-quarter buzzer sounded, cutting East Fairmont’s lead to 55-42 entering the fourth.
EFHS would outscore Scott 22-18 in the final frame to win comfortably.
The Bees assisted 13 of their 27 field goals.
“They are unselfish,” Asterino said. “They always want to make the extra pass. They have played year-round with one another. They have a great feel for one another.”
Ballard remains optimistic about his team despite the loss, knowing they must rally quickly before next Friday’s game against Parkersburg.
“You want to win every time you are out there, but our goal is to get better every day,” Ballard noted. “We have consistently done that over the years and I would have liked to get off to a better start than what we have in past seasons. The good thing about a loss like this is it shows you everything you have to work on moving forward.”
The Bees’ Greyson Stewart scored 19 points, including 13 in the second half.