Duane Cochrane
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Custis leads FSU to win
FAIRMONT — For the first nine minutes Tuesday evening at the Joe Retton Arena it looked like a typical, heated Fairmont State-Salem International men’s basketball game.
Slowly but surely, however, FSU began to exert its dominance over the Tigers and eventually the Falcons were able to pull away and cruise to an 82-44 victory.
The win improved Fairmont State to 3-0 overall and to 1-0 in the West Virginia Conference. Salem, meanwhile, fell to 0-4 overall and to 0-1 in the league.
Leading by nine with 10 minutes left in the opening half, the Falcons used a barrage of 3-point field goals to open a 40-27 advantage at the break. Then Fairmont started the second half with a 21-2 spurt and the contest was never close again.
“In the halftime locker room coach (Tim Murphy) told us to pick it up on defense at the start of the second half and try to end any thoughts they might have about coming back on us,” said FSU sophomore guard Steve Custis. “In the first half we did alright on defense, but in the second half I thought our defense was much better.”
Custis was the catalyst for Fairmont all evening in the win. He led all scorers in the game with 24 points and was able to get to the rim and finish, hit shots from the outside and convert on his opportunities at the foul line.
“This is a rivalry game for us and we tried tonight to come out and play hard, but to be honest I think we started a little slow,” said Custis. “Eventually we picked it up and got ourselves going.
“Personally I tried to attack the rim more tonight. I felt better out there this evening than I did in our first two games. When my shot isn’t falling I look to drive, but tonight it kind of seemed like both things, inside and outside, were working for me so I just tried to go with it and play the game hard.”
Junior point guard Erv McFadden chipped in a career-high 11 points in an FSU uniform. He also added three assists.
Fairmont used a balanced attack offensively which saw 12 of the 13 players who hit the floor for the Falcons score. Dan Bruner added nine points, Isaac Thornton contributed eight points and five rebounds and Pete O’Connor came off the bench and finished with seven points.
FSU’s defense held Salem to 38.3 percent shooting from the field (18-of-47), forced 27 turnovers and recorded 16 steals.
“Salem came out with a really good game plan against us because they ran the shot clock down in the first half and made us guard them,” said FSU coach Tim Murphy. “That took possessions away from us and they forced our defense to breakdown a few times there late in the shot clock. They really did a nice job with it.
“We really wanted to stretch the lead out early, but they kind of prevented us from doing that. I told the guys at halftime if we don’t play better defense in the second half and get this lead stretched out they’re going to get some confidence and we’re going to be in for a game and a battle for the rest of the evening. Luckily our kids kind of took that to heart and really took over the game at the start of the second half.”
Salem was led by Dominic Chappell’s 15 points. The Tigers also got 11 points from Ivan Jovici, six points from Tori Patton and five points apiece from North Marion High School graduate Sam Smith and Milorad Adasevic.
Fairmont State will now break for the Thanksgiving holiday and return to practice on Saturday. The Falcons will be back in action Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. when they host Ohio Valley University in a WVC game at the Joe Retton Arena.
- Duane Cochrane
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IUP fortunate to survive against FSU
The consensus opinion coming out of second-ranked and top-seeded Indiana (Pa.) University’s locker room following the Crimson Hawks’ nail-biting 71-67 victory over eighth-seeded Fairmont State here Saturday evening at Memorial Field House in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Men’s Atlantic Regional was that the host team survived despite a sub-par performance.
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Fantastic finish
Ashley Vavrek may have saved her best for last.
Fairmont State’s standout senior guard turned in a memorable performance in her final game in a Lady Falcon uniform last Friday night here at the Hammermill Center.
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IUP, Gannon pose big challenges for FSU
The tasks will be tall for Fairmont State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams who both qualified together for the NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament for the first time in school history.
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Deserving honor
Ashley Vavrek’s Most Valuable Player-winning performance in the recent West Virginia Conference Tournament helped Fairmont State claim its second league tournament title in three years and earn its third NCAA Division II Tournament berth in the last six seasons.
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FSU men, women earn D-II Tourney berths
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.
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Thrilling victory
Incredible!
That’s about the only way to describe what took place Monday evening at the Joe Retton Arena.
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Custis heads four Falcons on All-WVC team
Sophomore Steve Custis and true freshman Isaac Thornton lead a group of four Fairmont State University players who received honors on the annual All-West Virginia Conference Men’s Basketball Team which was selected by the league’s 16 coaches and announced today by the conference.
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FSU hosts Concord in West Virginia Conference tourney opener
The regular season certainly didn’t end like Fairmont State’s men’s basketball team wanted it to.
Two losses during the final week of the season and a total of three losses in nine days have left the Falcons in a situation where their performance in the annual West Virginia Conference Tournament will be of the utmost importance if they have any hopes of playing past this week.
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The first step
It’s tournament time tonight at the Joe Retton Arena.
Fairmont State’s Lady Falcons open West Virginia Conference Tournament play this evening at 7:30 p.m. when they host West Virginia State University in a first-round game.
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Vavrek repeat member of All-WVC team
Fairmont State’s Ashley Vavrek headlines a trio of Lady Falcons who garnered honors on the annual All-West Virginia Conference Women’s Basketball Team, which was selected by the league’s 16 head coaches and announced Sunday by the conference
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IUP fortunate to survive against FSU
