FAIRMONT, W.Va. — East Fairmont had just seen its two-point lead erased after throwing the ball away on an inbound pass that Robert C. Byrd’s Camryn Newsuan turned into a transition layup, allowing the Eagles to pull even at 47.
The Bees then called timeout with 29 seconds remaining and came out of it looking for a late go-ahead basket. Instead, they never had an opportunity as guard Hudson Brand was fouled in the backcourt with 23.2 seconds to play.
Brand stepped to the free-throw line, where he was 4 for 6 up until that point, and sank a pair to put the Bees in front. After Newsuan missed a baseline jumper in an effort to get his team even again, Brand made two foul shots with 1.3 seconds left to secure East Fairmont’s 51-47 victory Monday night.
“After the turnover, we didn’t compound the mistake,” Bees’ head coach Carter DeVault said. “We called a timeout, settled down and got the ball inbounds to Hudson and they lost focus and picked up a foul. He steps up and makes them and then we get a big stop.”
Two free throws from East Fairmont’s Hudson Brand to break a 47-all tie with 23 seconds left and put the Bees on top for good in their 51-47 win over Robert C. Byrd.#wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/Cu068aPqAY
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) January 13, 2026
The Bees (7-2) carried a 42-39 lead into what proved to be a low-scoring fourth quarter. The game was tied at 45 before Cayden Cooper threw down an uncontested dunk on a well-executed play to leave EFHS with a two-point lead with 2:45 to play.
“Hudson is faking the handoff and he’d played well, so he draws a lot of attention. River [McClain] is going through an elevator [screen], which he occupies some help there. It’s tough to guard that when Hudson is playing like he is and you have a kid as athletic as Cooper,” DeVault said. “If he gets a step, it’s pretty much over. That was a big bucket for us.”
RCB (7-3) had a chance for a late lead, but Manny Holmes missed a three-pointer from the top of the key with 1 minute remaining. Still, the Eagles maintained tight defensive pressure, and after giving two fouls, they forced the Bees to inbound from in front of their bench. The pass into the backcourt was stolen by Newsuan, who raced toward the rim for an uncontested bucket.
But the Bees didn’t get discouraged, and instead benefited from overaggressive defense on behalf of the Eagles that allowed Brand to step to the charity stripe.
“That’s a kid trying to make a play. You appreciate the effort, but he put two hands on him and it was a foul,” Eagles’ head coach Basil Lucas said. “He’s just trying to play hard and didn’t want to do that, but it’s something that happens and I promise you if he had to do it over, he’d do it differently.”
The Eagles put together their best stretch of the outing over the final 2 minutes of the first quarter, rattling off 11 unanswered points to lead 20-9 after 8 minutes. The spurt featured two threes from Holmes, one from Logan Boyce and a bucket in the paint from Carson Bennett.
“The difference in the first quarter is we were moving the ball,” Lucas said. “When you’re running motion, if you’re making good, hard cuts, you have an opportunity to get really good shots. We did that in the first quarter and that’s why we scored 20 points. When we start playing 1-on-1, that’s an issue, because we have one guy dribbling and trying to take it to the basket and four guys watching him do that. I give them credit for making us shoot overtop them when that was going on, but when we moved the ball, we mostly got the looks we wanted.”
RCB led 24-15 in the second after Newsuan scored off a drive to the basket, but the Bees dominated the remainder of the opening half to draw to within a point at the break.
Cooper accounted for his team’s last six points of the second quarter, including a basket just before time expired that enabled the home team to trail 26-25 ahead of the third quarter.
Brand’s conventional three-point play 55 seconds into the second half gave East Fairmont its first lead since 8-7.
The Bees upped their advantage to 37-32 at the 3-minute mark of the third after McClain made a layup, and after the Eagles quickly got back to within one, Brand connected from long range to help EFHS stay on top.
But the Bees went more than 4 minutes without a point to start the fourth quarter, during which time Boyce and Holmes scored from close range to put RCB in front.
Jaxon Conaway’s triple with 3:35 remaining provided East Fairmont with its first points of the fourth quarter on what marked his only field-goal attempt of the matchup.
Brand led all players with 20 points and added a team-best eight rebounds. Half of his scoring output came in the third quarter. Last week, he made two foul shots down the stretch in a one-point win over Fairmont Senior. Against the Eagles, he again came up clutch at the free-throw line.
“Just tried to stay focused and knock both down,” Brand said. “After that turnover, we took the timeout and regathered. I was to keep my cool and knock them down.”
Cooper added 15 points and six boards in the win.
Newsuan led RCB with 16 points and Holmes scored 12. Bennett contributed seven points and eight rebounds in defeat.
There was very little separation statistically between the teams. Both squads made 17 field goals and totaled 31 rebounds, while the Eagles had 10 turnovers to the Bees’ nine.
“We’ve worked on rebounding a lot lately,” Lucas said, “and I thought we made some strides with it tonight.”