By Duane Cochran
For the Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — When the final horn sounded last Thursday night at the Charleston Civic Center signifying the end of Charleston’s 101-90 victory over Fairmont State in the West Virginia Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals Falcon seniors Dan Bruner and Pete O’Connor embraced one another for a brief moment and patted each other on the head and back fearing the end of their careers had come.
However, just less than 72 hours later the pair learned while watching the NCAA Division II selection show Sunday evening that the 22-7 Falcons had done just enough this season to garner an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II National Tournament earning the eighth seed and final spot in the Atlantic Regional.
Fairmont State will face top-seeded Indiana (Pa.) University (28-2) in the opening round of the regional Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Crimson Hawks’ Memorial Field House. IUP, which brings a 10-game winning streak into the regional, is currently ranked second in the nation in NCAA Division II.
“I’m really excited about this opportunity, we all are,” said Bruner, FSU’s 6-9 senior forward who averages 12.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and needs just seven points to become the 42nd player in Fairmont State history to score 1,000 points in his career. “After the Charleston loss I thought our season was over. I didn’t think things looked good for us, but we got the bid and it got everyone excited. We know now we have new life.
“We also have a bit of an idea of what we’re going up against. We scrimmaged IUP last year at their place so we know a little bit about who they are and what they have. We also know they’re at home on their own court and they’re going to have a big crowd there. The bottom line is we’ve got to play and play for 40 minutes. It’s a big challenge for us, but it’s one we’re looking forward to.”
Fairmont State went 19-3 in its first 22 games, but then lost leading scorer Steve Custis to a knee injury for five contests. Custis had surgery to remove a torn meniscus in his knee and amazingly returned for FSU in the first round of the league tournament. The Falcons eliminated Concord in the first round, but then fell to UC in the quarterfinals. FSU is just 3-4 in its last seven games, but the Falcon players know they have a second chance now and want to take advantage of it.
“It means a lot to us to have this opportunity,” said O’Connor, FSU’s 6-5 senior forward who averages 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest. “It’s especially important to Dan and I because we’re the only seniors on the team and to be quite honest we thought our careers were over last week.
“Playing in the national tournament was something we always wanted to accomplish and now we have that chance. IUP is certainly a good team. We know that. We scrimmaged them last year, but we held our own against them. They’ve had a great season so far this year. We know they’re tough, but we feel like we’re a tough team too. When you get to this point every team is good.”
Some keys for Fairmont against the talented Crimson Hawks will be playing tenacious defense and keeping the strong IUP front court off of the offensive glass. In the Falcons’ loss to UC in the WVC Tournament the Golden Eagles scored almost at will against FSU in the paint and held a commanding 51-32 advantage on the boards.
“Defending and rebounding are going to be two big keys to the outcome of this game,” said O’Connor.
Bruner agrees.
“To put it lightly we basically screwed up against Charleston,” said Bruner. “We didn’t do a good job of defending them inside and keeping them off of the glass. We know teams are going to look at that game and look at us and feel like they can attack us inside. We’ve got to be ready for that and we’ve got to make sure we have people boxed out. We have to contest every shot and limit their second-chance opportunities on offense.
“There’s no big secret to playing solid defense and to rebounding. A lot of it just comes down to hustle and effort so we’ve got to be ready Saturday to put it all out there and see what happens for us.”
