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Bears Race Past Bees, 88-50
BYMIKE BOWEN TIMES WEST VIRGINIAN
FAIRMONT — What started out looking like another classic battle between city rivals Fairmont Senior and East Fairmont on the basketball court quickly turned into a rout.
The Polar Bears took the lead — 11-10 — for good at 6:58 in the second quarter on a Logan Moore layup and never looked back en route to a 88-50 win over the Bees.
“Records don’t mean anything in this game,” Fairmont Senior head coach David Retton said.
“You’ve got to play the game. And we did. Our guys came out, especially in the second half, and turned it up and put the game away.”
The Bees (3-9, 3-5 in the North Central Athletic Conference) were the aggressors early, forcing the Bears into turnovers and getting opportunities at the offensive end.
But East couldn’t finish, especially around the basket, missing eight shots from within three feet of the hoop in the first quarter alone. Still, the Bees maintained a 8-7 advantage after the first period.
“We had a lot of opportunities,” East Fairmont head coach Tyrone Asterino said. “It wasn’t all inside or post shots. We had a lot of perimeter stuff miss too.
We had some that rolled in and rolled out; they just wouldn’t go down. But that’s high school basketball. You have to work through that and keep shooting.”
In the second quarter the Polar Bear barrage started.
FSHS outscored East 27- 17 in the period, 11 of which came on free throws as the Bee defense found it hard to contain the running and gunning Polar Bears.
“Our defense and rebounding were a key for us again tonight,” Retton said. “I thought we let them get too many offensive rebounds in the first but took control after that. Those rebounds help get us out in transition and open up the floor for us. I thought we had a lot of 3on-2 and 2-on-1 fast breaks as a result.”
The lead continued to build for the Bears in the third as the outside shots started to rain in from beyond the arc.
FSHS nailed five treys in the third quarter alone, including back-to-back daggers by Ty Garrison that pushed the lead to 16 — 45-29 — midway through the third.
“We had some defensive breakdowns,” Asterino said. “We turned the ball over four straight possessions down the floor. You can’t do things like that and expect to beat a good team. We got some shots that we wanted, but we just couldn’t knock them down.”
Former East Fairmont player Ryan Sevier led the Polar Bears with 25 points in the first game against his old teammates.
Garrison chipped in 20 points. Andrew Marra had 16 and Johnathan Logan finished with 11 for the Polar Bears.
East was paced by senior Matt Perrella with 11 points. Jacob Bower also had 10 points for the Bees.
“It’s a good win for us,” Retton said. “But we know on Feb. 20 (when the two teams meet at EFHS) that they’ll be ready for us.”
The Polar Bears move to 10-1 overall and 5-1 in the NCAC. They will return to action on Saturday when they host Wheeling Park at 7:30 p.m.
East Fairmont will play at Robert C. Byrd on Friday.
WFHS TV NEWS thanks the Times West Virginian for the collaborative partnership since 1999.
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