ERIE, Pa. —
For the first seven-plus minutes here Friday evening in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Women’s Basketball Tournament at Gannon University’s Hammermill Center, eighth-seeded Fairmont State and the top-seeded Gannon Lady Golden Knights looked like they were playing a season opener.
The two teams had combined for more turnovers (13) than they had points (12), and it looked as if there may be no end to the sloppy play.
Unfortunately for Fairmont, there was
Seventh-ranked Gannon regrouped after a media timeout, cleaned up its act and wiped out a 7-5 FSU lead with a dominating 25-2 run over the course of the next 11:10 to take a commanding 30-9 lead en route to a 66-40 victory.
“At the media timeout we told the girls to just keep playing and keep their heads up because it was going to come around for us,” said Gannon head coach Cleve Wright, who saw his team improve to 29-4 with the victory and advance to Saturday’s semifinals of the regional where they’ll face fourth-seeded Indiana (Pa.) University, a 72-59 winner over fifth-seeded Bloomsburg (Pa) University in Friday’s first round. “We were getting good looks and they just weren’t falling for us.
“Defensively. we were doing what we needed to do against them, so I wasn’t concerned there. I just felt like if we just kept executing and getting shots eventually we’d get things going and shots would fall and they did.”
Boy did they ever. After a miserable start the Lady Knights ended up shooting 45.5 percent from the field (10-of-22) in the first half and a red-hot 57.7 percent in the second half (15-of-26).
Fairmont, on the other hand, never did really get on track against Gannon’s stingy defense, which hounded Lady Falcon shooters all night, held FSU to its lowest point total of the season and forced a season-high 25 turnovers. FSU shot just 28.3 percent from the field for the game (13-of-46), including a mere 20 percent in the opening half.
“Gannon beat us up tonight. They’re very good,” said Fairmont State coach Steve McDonald, whose team finished the season 23-10. “I’m proud of my team, though. We never quit. I don’t think we showed you what kind of team we really are, but a great deal of that had to do with Gannon.”
After falling behind by 21, Fairmont rallied late in the first half and trimmed the deficit to 30-16 before Gannon’s Mollie Sebald hit a halfcourt 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 33-16 at the break.
In the second half Fairmont settled in and got the lead down to 14 on three occasions early with chances to trim it to 12 or 11. but the Lady Falcons were never able to convert on any of those chances and the hot-shooting Lady Golden Knights made them pay by pushing the lead back to 20 with 12:27 remaining. After that FSU never got any closer than 17.
“That’s how it goes sometimes,” said Fairmont sophomore center Hailey Garrett, who led her team with 12 points, six rebounds, four steals and three blocks. “We didn’t make as many shots as we would’ve like to, and they just shot the ball very well tonight, especially in the second half. For the most part. I feel like we were playing good defense, but they’ve got some very good shooters and very good post players and they weren’t missing.”
FSU senior point guard Kaitlin Snyder was the only other Lady Falcon to reach double figures in the scoring column in the loss. She finished with 10 points and left the game with 8:06 remaining with a back injury after suffering a hard fall on a drive to the basket around the 12-minute mark of the second half.
Emily Lohr chipped in nine points for FSU, while Hallie Gunnoe finished with seven.
Gannon was led by center Nettie Blake’s 15 points, 10 of which came in the second half. She was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field. The Lady Golden Knights, who had nine different players score in the victory, also got 12 points from Sebald, nine from Kelley Sundberg and eight from Amanda Berchtold.
In other first-round action in Friday’s Atlantic Regional sixth-seeded Glenville State used a single-game NCAA Division II Tournament record 21 3-point field goals to eliminate third-seeded and defending national champion Shaw (N.C.) University, 111-86, and seventh-seeded California (Pa.) University topped second-seeded Edinboro (Pa.) University, 80-72. Glenville and Cal will meet in today’s semifinals at 5 p.m.
Fairmont State Sports
Seventh-ranked Gannon eliminates FSU
- Fairmont State Sports
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FSU, MVB team up for successful tournament
The Falcons and MVB paired to complete th 21st annual MVB-Fairmont State Athletic Association Golf Tournament at the Bridgeport Country Club on Friday.
Fairmont State’s mission during the event was to sell out, so thar FSU could raise as much money as possible for the athletic department. -
Cobb named Atlantic Player of the Year
Fairmont State’s Chelsea Cobb was named the Daktronics Atlantic Region Player of the Year and outfielder Holly Frampton was a first team all-region selection. Freshman Courtney Iacobacci was a second team all-region selection.
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Three Falcons earn All-WVIAC honors
Thee Fairmont State University baseball players earned All-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors, the league announced Wednesday.
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FSU sweeps major WVIAC softball honors
Fairmont State University’s softball program took home all four major postseason awards given out by the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
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Caridi challenges FSU to ‘be brave’
Tony Caridi’s message Saturday evening to Fairmont State University’s student athletes, coaches, administration, alumni and friends was simple, yet very compelling, especially during this time of change in Falcon athletics.
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Falcons fall short in tourney championship
West Virginia State defeated Fairmont State, 3-1, in game two of the WVIAC Tournament Finals to clinch the WVIAC Tournament Championship. FSU picked up a 4-1 victory early in the day to force a second game.
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Falcons, State to clash for softball title
Fairmont State University and West Virginia State softball teams will clash today for the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Championship.
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COLUMN: Davis, Monroe set to lead FSU
As early impressions go, Garrett Davis could not have made more of a favorable one in the eyes of Jason Woodman.
Woodman, Fairmont State’s first-year head football coach and a Marion County native, certainly knew about the senior middle linebacker before he even took the gig last December. -
Falcon ‘D’ shines in 40-18 win: PHOTOS
As spring games go, Fairmont State University’s annual Maroon-White contest Thursday evening at Duvall-Rosier Field ran pretty much to form.
Using a modified scoring system that awarded points to the defense for turnovers and stops, the Falcons’ Maroon (defensive unit) came up with three turnovers and a number of stops to roll to a 40-18 victory over the White (offensive unit) in front of more than 500 fans eager to get their first glimpse of the new-look Falcons. -
N.C. point guard signs with Falcons
Fairmont State might have its point guard of the future.
Second-year head coach Jerrod Calhoun announced his first signing for the 2013-14 season on Thursday, as the program welcomed North Carolina standout Caleb Davis into the Falcon family. - More Fairmont State Sports Headlines
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