BEES Basketball

Polar Bears best rival Bees in final tune-up

• by Michael Minnich Sports Editor  Clarksburg Exponent/Telegram  2/16/2018

FAIRMONT — The Fairmont Senior Polar Bears started the four quarters of Thursday’s game on 8-0, 4-0, 7-0 and 7-0 runs, disposing of the East Fairmont Bees, 58-34, in a preview of next Tuesday’s Region I, Section 2 semifinal.

Angela DeLorenzo scored 17 points and grabbed four rebounds for the defending state champions, who end the regular season with a 17-5 record.

“Defensively, I thought we did a lot of good things,” Fairmont Senior coach Corey Hines said. “We won every quarter, and that was the goal. We’ve seen a lot of things that we still need to work on, but that’s cool. We’ll work on those things from the winning end.”

Courtney Wilfong added nine points, seven rebounds and three steals.

The Bees (10-11) were led by Kianna Casuccio’s nine points, with Jayden Lindsey and Avery Pack adding seven each.

“We were good at times,” East Fairmont coach James Beckman said of his team’s ability to handle Fairmont Senior’s trademark defensive pressure, which forced 22 turnovers. “Other times, not so much. We’ve got be able to attack the gaps and get some reversals. Sometimes, we did fine against it. Other times, we froze. You’ve got to attack pressure with pressure.”

Fairmont Senior opened the game on an 8-0 run, getting four points from Morgan Lilley. East Fairmont got on the board with 4:45 left in the first quarter on two technical foul free throws by Lindsey and closed to within three points at 10-7 on a Lindsey 3 at the 3-minute mark.

Fairmont Senior scored the next five points on a DeLorenzo hoop-and-harm and a Zyaira Little stick-back and led 15-9 after one period.

The Polar Bears took a double-digit lead at 19-9 on a Wilfong layup and stretched it to 14 at 27-13 on a layup by Stephanie Vincent.

“I thought we adapted really well,” Hines said. “We figured out, if you got to the basket, you’re going to get rewarded. A lot of times, we were on the positive end of those calls because we were aggressive.”

It was still a 14-point game, 33-19, at the break.

Fairmont Senior scored the first seven points of the third quarter, all coming from the line except for an Abby Faulkner jumper, to go up 40-19 before a Somer Stover lay-in broke the spell with 2:25 left in the third quarter.

The Polar Bears led by 21, 46-25, after three quarters.

Fairmont Senior scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and led by as many as 27 points.

The two schools will meet again, this time across town at the Fairmont Senior Field House, on Tuesday at 7 p.m., with the winner likely getting another shot at top seed North Marion.

“We’ve got three days to regroup and next Tuesday’s for all of the marbles,” Beckman said.

“This is a new season starting on Tuesday,” Hines agreed. “Hopefully, we’ll do what we have to do to get a win in that game and get the opportunity to go back to North Marion.”