East Fairmont turns over rival Fairmont Senior, 68-41

“Pressure,” East Fairmont coach James Beckman explained. “That’s our identity. That’s who we are. We want to make it 32 minutes of pressure from start to finish.”

And, that is exactly what the hosts did as the visiting Polar Bears (7-10) were able to keep the game close for the first 10 minutes before wilting under the pressure of a Bees’ full court press which forced 21 first-half turnovers and 36 for the game.

“I thought our kids did a good job of attacking their pressure in the first quarter,” explained Fairmont Senior coach Ryan Sevier. “But we had that drought in the second quarter and that was the game.”

Sophomore Kaelin Hamilton’s lay-in with 6:32 remaining until the intermission cut the East Fairmont lead to three, 18-15, but those would be the final points tallied by the visitors until a free throw by Renecia King with 49 seconds showing on the clock.

Meanwhile the Bees surged to a 12-0 run and closed out the first half with a Klaire Rogers 3-pointer to forge a 33-16 lead.

“I thought our kids did a good job with our pressure,” added Beckman. “But we didn’t do a good job of turning those turnovers into points. If this team wants to get back to Charleston and make a deep run, then it is going to have to do a better job of converting turnovers into points and making good on our opportunities from the charity stripe.”

East’s advantage continued to grow in the third quarter as Hamilton tallied back-to-back-to-back triples and finished with a game-high 19 points.

Senior fought back and sliced the margin to 19, 53-34, on a 3 by Ava Abel just before the buzzer.

“Our girls played hard,” said Sevier. “This is a rivalry game. It’s the kind of game I’d like to see us play twice a year. We needed this type of atmosphere to help prepare us for tournament time.”

Joining Hamilton in double-digits for East Fairmont, which plays host to Chapmanville Regional on Friday, was Kasey Rogers and Emma Moore with 13 and 10 points respectively.

The Polar Bears, who travel to Philip Barbour for a Big 10 Conference contest on Wednesday, received 12 points off of the bench from Cheyanne Bishoff.

Sophomore Maliyah Young, who was saddled with four fouls in the first half, and Emma Sacca chipped in with six points each.

“We are used to playing in this kind of atmosphere,” said Beckman. “This is a rivalry game and our kids look forward to playing it every year.”