FAIRMONT — Incredible!
That’s about the only way to describe what took place Monday evening at the Joe Retton Arena.
Fairmont State’s Lady Falcons rallied from an 18-point deficit in the game’s final 15:44 to record a thrilling 62-57 come-from-behind victory over 11th-seeded West Virginia State in the opening round of the West Virginia Conference Tournament.
The win, forever, will be memorable for FSU head coach Steve McDonald, who posted his 200th career victory last night with the Lady Falcons.
“It’s really hard to find words to describe it,” said McDonald, who watched his sixth-seeded Lady Falcons improve to 19-9 on the year. “The worst 20 minutes of my coaching career were the first 20 minutes tonight. The best 20 minutes were the last 20 minutes. We’ve won conference championships and we’ve won games in which we came from behind to win, but I honestly believe this is the greatest comeback win I’ve been associated with and it wasn’t because of the coaches, although I thought (FSU assistant coach) Jenna (Eckleberry) did a great job with our substitutions in the second half. It was because of our players. They absolutely refused to lose tonight.”
The win sets up a quarterfinal-round meeting with third-seeded Charleston (20-8) at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Charleston Civic Center. The Lady Golden Eagles routed 14th-seeded Ohio Valley last night, 80-53.
“This whole game was about heart,” said FSU’s Ashley Vavrek, who overcame a sprained wrist on her shooting hand and a dismal first-half performance with an outstanding effort in the final 20 minutes. “The whole first half for us was really, really bad. I admit had some doubts at that point.
“In the second half, though, we came out and everyone for us just played at a different level. We got on a run and cut it down to six and I don’t even know how much time was left then, but I kept thinking to myself just keep playing hard, keep playing defense and let’s not let up. I wanted us to finish it.”
Vavrek finished with a game-high 22 points, 20 of which came in the game’s final 17 minutes. She now has 1,497 career points which ranks seventh all-time in FSU history.
In the first half State gave Fairmont all it wanted and more. The Lady Yellow Jackets, who ended the season with a 16-12 record, pressed the Lady Falcons, pounded them on the boards and held them to a horrid 5-of-30 shooting performance from the field. That all translated into a 33-17 advantage at the break for State.
In the second half the teams took turns trading baskets until State stretched its lead to 18 for the final time at 41-23 on a Melissa Ford layup with 16:04 remaining.
Then FSU gave State a dose of its own medicine. The Lady Falcons employed a full-court press and trapped Lady Yellow Jacket leading scorer Alixandria Barnette all over the floor whenever she had the basketball. As a result State’s offense got somewhat out of sync down the stretch and the Lady Yellow Jackets ended up turning the ball over nine times in the second half and FSU turned a number of those miscues into points.
True freshman point guard Kaitlin Snyder also played an outstanding second half for Fairmont. She finished with 16 points, 11 of which came in the second half. Seven of those points came in a span of 1:18 when she hit a driving layup, immediately got a steal and converted another layup and then sank a 3-pointer to single-handedly wipe out the Lady Falcons’ six-point deficit and give her team the lead for good at 56-55 with 2:45 to play.
“No one on our team wanted to lose,” said Snyder. “We’re not ready for our season to end and at the half we talked about doing whatever we had to do to get a win. Our defensive game-plan in the second half was a key for us. We doubled Alixandria (Barnette) all over the floor and I think that disrupted their offense. As a result it caused us to play with more intensity, get some crucial steals and just play a lot better on the offensive end.
“There’s no doubt we played bad in the first half tonight, but we weren’t giving up. We were never going to quit.”
Fairmont outscored State 15-2 in the game’s final 4:40 to record the win. Lauren Gilbert came off the bench and finished with eight points, six of which came in the second half including a pair of clutch free throws with 13.7 seconds left to give FSU a 60-55 lead.
“To be honest I didn’t even know the score at that point,” said Gilbert, who has battled a knee injury the past few weeks, but played 20 minutes last night, including 13 in the second half. “I just knew we needed them and I had to make them.
“It really just came down to heart and effort for us. In the second half we all played with a lot of both.”
Rachel Murray chipped in 10 points and a career-high 20 rebounds for FSU, 11 of which came in second half. FSU also got four points and four rebounds from Mo Gattuso and two points from Samantha Guell.
State, which got outscored 45-24 in the second half, was led by Barnette, who finished with 13 points and Tiffany Finkton, who ended up with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
