CHARLESTON, W.Va. — East Fairmont wanted no part of a half court game Friday in its Class AAA semifinal against Nitro
By utilizing full court pressure to disrupt the No. 3 Wildcats throughout, the seventh-seeded Bees ensured the game was played at a pace to their liking.
In turn, East Fairmont never trailed after the first quarter and claimed a 52-44 victory to secure a spot in the state final for the first time in program history
“We were able to run, create chaos and play to our identity,” East Fairmont coach James Beckman said. “We knew we didn’t want to play in a half court setting with them. We wanted to get out and run and get offense from our defense, and we did a good job of that.”
The latter stages of the opening quarter were dominated by the Bees (18-6) and swung the contest in their favor.
Starting with Mackenzie Shupe’s layup that tied the game at 6 with 2:49 left in the opening period, the Bees ran off eight unanswered points to end the frame, a stretch that also featured four points from Kailee Haymond and a bucket from Emma Moore.
Equally, if not more important than its 12-6 lead, was that East Fairmont had Nitro flustered as the Wildcats shot 3 for 13 and had eight turnovers in the opening quarter.
“We kind of lost our heads and never really picked it back up mentally,” Nitro coach Pat Jones said.
“We wanted to not just physically wear them down, but mentally wear them down where we could turn them over and let defense turn into offense,” Beckman said.
NHS was better offensively in the second quarter, but Shupe, Moore and Audrey Singer each hit a three-pointer for EFHS in that frame to help the Bees lead 26-18 at halftime.
Nitro had 13 turnovers at the break.
“We just got frustrated and it didn’t help that our guards got in foul trouble, but we worked on it in practice yesterday,” Jones said. “I’ve seen it for nine years. I know his game plan with jump traps and presses. We took our heads mentally out of the game after about 4 minutes.”
Beckman’s team then came out even better in the second half, and after Bayleigh Elkins scored to make it a 30-22 deficit for the Wildcats at the 4:36 mark of the third quarter, the Bees scored the final 10 points of the period to all but put to rest any hope for Nitro.
That stretch began with two free throws from Kailee Haymond and was followed by consecutive close range buckets from Moore.
Kasey Rogers and Moore each went 2 for 2 on free throws over the final 1:13 of the third, and the Wildcats trailed 40-22 entering the fourth.
The Wildcats made seven of their 17 field goals in the fourth and got as close as seven, that coming with 33.9 seconds left after Brooklyn Cawley made the second of two free throws.
But it was too little, too late for a program that had ended each of its last two seasons on championship Saturday.
Moore scored a team-high 18 points, Shupe added 11 and Hammond scored 10.
Karson Jones had a game-high 22 points and 13 rebounds in defeat.
“She had such an amazing senior season coming back from a torn ACL,” Jones said.
Bri Gibson scored 11 for Nitro, which had 24 of 37 turnovers between the two teams and missed all 11 of its threes.
East Fairmont will take on No. 1 and unbeaten Greenbrier East in the state title game Saturday.
The Bees battled significant injuries throughout the season, playing long stretches without Moore, Rogers and Shupe.
“Now that everyone is back together,” Haymond said, “we play better together as a team because of that chemistry.”
It’s not a coincidence the Bees are playing their best basketball with a roster that’s close to full strength at present than it’s been throughout this season.
“These girls just roll with the punches,” Beckman said. “Changing things on the fly not once or twice, but three different times, we built a bench because of that and we built next year because of all of this. We knew if we could buy some time until we could get kids healthy, we could make a run and that’s 10 of 11.”