By Duane Cochran
For the Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — Fairmont State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams learned Sunday they both earned berths in the annual NCAA Division II Tournament which will begin at campus sites this weekend.
FSU’s Lady Falcons secured their third trip in school history to the D-II Tournament when they claimed the West Virginia Conference Tournament Championship Saturday evening in Charleston with an 85-78 overtime victory over West Liberty University.
Fairmont’s women will take part in this week’s Atlantic Regional as the No. 8 seed. The Lady Falcons (22-9) will tangle with No. 1 seed Gannon University (33-0) Friday, March 12 at 6 p.m. at Gannon’s Hammermill Center in Erie, Pa.
Fairmont State’s men (22-7), on the other hand, also enter the Atlantic Regional as the No. 8 seed. The Falcons will take on top-seeded Indiana (Pa.) University (28-2) Saturday, March 13 at IUP’s Memorial Field House. The game time for that contest will be announced Monday by IUP.
This will be Fairmont’s men’s team’s fifth trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament since 1996, but the squad’s first since 2000 and first under sixth-year head coach Tim Murphy.
“We knew we were going to be close to the bubble,” said Murphy. “We worried if our last game in the league tournament against Charleston (a 101-90 loss) was going to hurt us, but obviously we’ve had a pretty good year and we've got several quality wins so I think this is huge for our program. I’m anxious for our kids to get a taste of playing in a national tournament and we’re going to try to do our best against a very good IUP team.”
Veteran Lady Falcon coach Steve McDonald knows too that his squad has a tall task ahead of it. Not only is Gannon the top-seeded team in the Atlantic Region, the Lady Knights are currently ranked No. 1 in the nation. FSU did face Gannon last season and fell 71-65 in the second game of the year at the annual Concord University Tip-Off Classic.
“I’m disappointed that we're the eighth seed not because of who our opponent is, but because I think if there is respect for the West Virginia Conference and our fifth-place team in the league can be ranked third in the region and we’ve beaten that team two out of three times this year we should be a little bit higher than eighth,” said McDonald. “At that same time I say that, we are extremely happy to have the opportunity to play another day.
“If you’re going to win this region and advance to the “Elite Eight” you're going to have to beat the on-paper best team and it doesn’t matter if you play them in the “Sweet 16” or in the first round of 64.”
In Friday’s other first-round women's game in Erie, Pa., fourth-seeded Fayetteville State (N.C.) will take on fifth-seeded Seton Hill (Pa.) University at 8:30 p.m.
Instead of the traditional eight-team regional format, the Atlantic Region has split its tournament into a pair of four-team sub-regionals hosted by the top two seeds in both the men's and women's tournaments.
In the women’s tourney, California (Pa.) University received the No. 2 seed and will host the other half of the Atlantic Regional bracket beginning Friday evening. The Lady Vulcans will battle seventh-seeded Virginia State, while third-seeded West Liberty University takes on sixth-seeded Millersville (Pa.).
In the men’s bracket in Indiana, Pa., fourth-seeded West Virginia State will square off against fifth-seeded East Stroudsburg, Pa. on Saturday.
The other half of the men’s bracket will take place at second-seeded West Liberty University Saturday. The Hilltoppers will face seventh-seeded Alderson-Broaddus, while third-seeded Saint Augustine (N.C.) College tangles with sixth-seeded Kutztown, Pa.
The two sub-regional winners in both tournaments will then meet at the highest remaining seed’s home court in the regional title games for the right to advance to the “Elite Eight.”
