Fairmont Senior is the two-time defending Class AA boys basketball state champion, and on Saturday the Polar Bears will get a shot at a third consecutive ring.
On Friday, top-seed Fairmont Senior cruised past Philip Barbour 99-62 in the state semifinals at the Charleston Civic Center to set up a rematch of last season’s title game against Chapmanville.
The Polar Bears (25-0) raced out early against the Colts (22-4), building a 24-13 lead after one quarter and increasing it to 42-26 at the half.
“We had outstanding focus and intensity for four quarters, and these guys, I think they were laser-focused from about 10 o’clock last night. Maybe 9 o’clock,” said Fairmont Senior coach David Retton. “They really dialed in. They were dialed in this morning and just played an outstanding defensive game.”
Philip Barbour had its opportunities to get back into the game. The Colts nearly cut the lead to single-digits on several occasions, but every time it started to feel like the momentum might start to shift in their favor, there was Fairmont Senior with another big play.
“I thought we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole there at the beginning but we dug ourselves out right before halftime,” Colts coach Marcus Johnson said. “Midway through the third I thought we really had a chance. We were only down like 12 or 14 and they went on a little bit of a run. I don’t know if we got tired or what, but they went on a little run and it got up to 19, 20 real quick. They’re a pretty good team.”
Fairmont Senior outrebounded Philip Barbour 47-25 in the game and dominated in the paint, outscoring the Colts 60-22 down low. Retton said that was part of the game plan and it worked.
“It was huge,” he said. “You look at what No. 12 [Philip Barbour’s Cole Whited] did. [Levi MacAdam] is their most athletic kid, I think, and 23 [Noah Price] — I think we did a great job on all three of those kids. We got pressure on their fifth man. They rotated guys in and we wanted to keep pressure on them. We felt if we could press them for four quarters that we would wear them down, and today we were effective in wearing them down.”
Junior Jalen Bridges led the Polar Bears with 25 points to go with six rebounds, while fellow Fairmont Senior junior Zyon Dobbs scored 20 and handed out 10 assists in the win. Taevon Horton was the only other Polar Bear scoring in double figures with 12 points, while Dante Stills — bound for West Virginia University to play football — grabbed nine rebounds to lead all players.
“You look at what Stills did inside,” Retton said. “He’s 6-6, 285 [pounds] and did a tremendous job.”
For Philip Barbour, David Shriver led the Colts with 19 points while MacAdam finished with 10.
Fairmont Senior and Chapmanville will get championship Saturday started at the Civic Center at noon, followed by the Class A state title game at 2:30 p.m. and the Class AAA game at 7:15 p.m.
