Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
CHARLESTON A drive to the basket, a loose ball into the hands of Joey Gollihue, a 3-pointer short of the mark and a Fairmont Senior rebound saved to a Polar Bear teammate while going out of bounds was the final straw.
What happened prior was largely the reason Chapmanville was in a deficit for the majority of Tuesday morning's Class AAA quarterfinals at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Fairmont Senior equaled its largest lead with 6:20 remaining in the fourth quarter, 45-36 when Darrell Claybrook scored on a fast break layup, but the Polar Bears had to hold off a late Chapmanville rally, but the nine-point deficit was too much to overcome, and the fourth-seeded Polar Bears advanced to Friday's Class AA semifinals defeating the Tigers 47-46.
Keaton Terry's tip in of a missed Gollihue layup with 1:10 remaining capped a 10-2 run to bring the Tigers within one point. Fairmont Senior was able to run off 33 seconds before Gollihue fouled Butler, putting him on the free throw line with 0:37 to play.
Butler missed both free throws and Terry rebounded the second miss for Chapmanville, who got it in the frontcourt and called timeout with 0:11 to play.
Out of the timeout, Benji Adkins drove the lane but was stripped of the basketball, which found its way to Gollihue on the right wing for a potential game-winning shot. Gollihue's shot was short of the mark with 0:05 to play as Butler rebounded the miss and got the ball into the hands of Trea Cumberledge as he was falling out of bounds.
"We were looking for a backdoor play and kind of lost the ball a little bit, still got a decent look, but we actually setting up a backdoor play that we had scored on a little bit earlier,” Chapmanville head coach Brad Napier said. “We were trying to run that again because they were overplaying Joey (Gollihue).”
Chapmanville was unable to foul Cumberledge as the final seconds ran off the clock preserving a one-point Fairmont Senior victory.
“The big thing with our guys was just having a positive belief in themselves and our team,” Fairmont Senior head coach Dave Retton said. “I thought that overall was just huge in having that confidence to finish the game and at the same time you know that shot could go either way.”
Chapmanville outscored Fairmont Senior 40-10 in the paint, had 10 second chance points, but made just one 3-pointer to the Polar Bears seven 3-point makes.
“We kind of felt like we had a little bit of a size advantage, and we wanted to take advantage of it” Napier said. "We were cold, we missed some good looks, and we had some go all the way in and pop out."
Sometimes it happens like that, sometimes it’s not your night, and we missed some easy ones in the paint too especially in the first half," Napier said.
Claybrook and Cumberledge combined for 11 first quarter points to help Fairmont Senior jump out to a 15-9 lead after one quarter. The Polar Bears led by as many as eight in the opening quarter and led by seven points, 20-13, when Butler knocked down a jumper with 5:06 to play before halftime.
The Polar Bears would go scoreless in the final five minutes of the first half as the Tigers scored the final five points and drew to within two points, 20-18, at halftime.
Cumberledge scored the first basket of the second half, but Gollihue score five straight including Chapmanville's lone 3-pointer to give the Tigers a 23-22 lead with 6:55 to play in the third quarter.
Fairmont Senior went on an 11-4 scoring run highlighted by three 3-pointers, two from Cumberledge and one form Butler, to take a 33-27 lead with 4:15 remaining in the third.
The Polar Bears lead reached as many as nine points before Terry scored on a layup to trim the deficit to seven, 41-34, after three quarters.
Fairmont Senior knocked down 8 of 13 shots in the third quarter after making eight shots in the first half.
“We really didn’t make a lot of adjustments. We talked about halftime about just let the ball go, just let the ball go,” Retton said. “And like I said, I really thought our shot selection was really good, (but) it was just the mindset I am concerned about making it.”
“If you are concerned about making it more than likely you are going to miss it. If you just let it go, that ball is going to have a better shot of going,” Retton said. “These guys were resilient; they hung in there and good things happen for our team today.”
Midway through the third quarter, Cumberledge, who picked up three fouls in the first half, was whistled for his fourth foul and had to watch from the bench.
With Cumberledge out, Adkins was able to score six of his 16 points in the final four minutes of the third quarter.
“Cumberledge was in foul trouble, and he was the guy guarding Benji and they had to switch some things around and put a smaller guy on him,” Napier said. “We took advantage of it when we could.”
Despite scoring droughts of 5:06 in the second quarter and 6:20 in the fourth quarter, the Polar Bears were able to advance to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season.
“That is a long time. That sounds like me when I used to play except my drought was a lot longer,” Retton said. “That says something about these guys, and we weren’t trying to hold the ball. Sometimes you get that, and you get a little tentative instead of going forward, attacking, getting that good shot and we did that in the fourth quarter.”
Claybrook and Cumberledge each had 15 points and Butler added 13 for Fairmont Senior, who improved to 18-5 with the win. The Polar Bears shot better from 3, connecting on 43.8% of their 3-point attempts (7 for 16), than they did from the field where they made 38.3% of their shots (18 for 47).
“These guys were awesome. Awesome mindset going into the game, I thought we played very free,” Retton said. “I thought initially we got the shots that we wanted, and I think we were trying to make shots instead of shooting the ball.”
Terry led the Tigers with 18 points and 16 rebounds.
“He does that pretty much on a daily basis. He rebounds the ball, he scores the ball, he is very athletic and very active,” Napier said. “We kind of expect that from him to be honest with you."
Adkins finished with 16 points while Gollihue, Chapmanville's leading scorer and lone senior, was held to seven points on 3 of 12 shooting.
“They took his (Gollihue) outside shooting away, he didn’t get as many opportunities, but it gave him some curls and some opportunities to get to the basket more,” Napier said. “They play great defense, they’re very, very good defensively, very fundamentally sound and they just make it hard on you to score. They’re quick, they’re strong, they’re experience, so they are tough to score on."
For the second year in a row, Chapmanville lost in the quarterfinals by a single point, last year Ravenswood defeated the Tigers in the Class AA quarterfinals, and Fairmont Senior this season to end the Tigers season at 15-8 overall.
“It was a battle and I didn’t expect nothing less. Anytime you go up against Fairmont and Coach Retton, you got to battle,” Napier said. “They have played in the state championship seems like every year forever, those guys know how to win. I thought we fought hard, (but) it just wasn’t our night.”
Class AA Quarterfinals (Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center- Charleston, WV)
Fairmont Senior 47, Chapmanville 46 (Overtime)
Chapmanville Tigers (15-8)
Brock, J 2-3 0-0 4, Dalton 0-4 1-2 1, Gollihue 3-12 0-2 7, Adkins 7-11 2-4 16, Terry 9-14 0-0 18, Brock, C. 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-45 3-8 46.
Fairmont Senior Polar Bears (18-5)
Claybrook 4-9 4-4 15, Morris 1-6 0-0 2, Cumberledge 6-13 0-1 15, Butler 6-15 0-3 13, Martin 1-1 0-0 2, Cowger 0-3 0-0 0. Totals: 18-47 4-8 47.
Chapmanville 9 9 16 12- 46
Fairmont Senior 15 5 21 6- 47
3-point field goals_Chapmanville 1-7 (Dalton 0-3, Gollihue 1-4), Fairmont Senior 7-16 (Claybrooke 3-6, Morris 0-3, Cumberledge 3-3, Butler 1-4). Fouled out_None. Rebounds_Chapmanville 30 (Terry 16), Fairmont Senior 28 (Martin 7). Assists_Chapmanville 11 (Dalton 8), Fairmont Senior 10 (Butler 4). Total fouls_Chapmanville 13, Fairmont Senior 8. Technicals_None.