By Rich Stevens
What is a coach’s best friend when his team is trailing late in a game?
Scoring when the clock is off.
Depth-challenged Grafton had plenty of opportunities, but the seventh-seeded and upset-minded Bearcats watched Fairmont Senior do the same in a 76-58 West Virginia Class AA girls state high school tournament semifinal loss on Friday morning at the Charleston Civic Center.
The third-seeded Polar Bears (23-4) move to the Class AA title game at noon on Saturday where they will face the winner of the Wyoming East-Sissonville semifinal. Fairmont Senior dropped a 50-47 decision to Sissonville in the 2015 championship.
The Bearcats (17-8), who knocked off No. 2 Lincoln in the quarterfinals, were part of a tourney contest that set four free throw and foul records.
“They probably played 13 to 14 people and we’re only used to playing seven,” said Grafton coach Andrew Moore, whose team had five players disqualified on fouls. “It doesn’t matter if four people get four fouls, they have more people to put in.”
There were four team records broken:
n Grafton and Fairmont Senior each made 36 foul shots, setting a record held by St. Marys, which attempted 29 against Tucker County in 2014.
n Grafton attempted 50 foul shots, breaking the record of 37 held by now-defunct Mullens which tried 37 in a 1984 game against Madonna.
n Fairmont Senior was whistled for 35 fouls, beating the former record of 29 shared by Madonna against Tucker County from 1984 and Tucker against St. Marys in 2014.
n Grafton and Fairmont Senior were whistled for 67 fouls, breaking the record held by Tucker County and St. Marys, who combined for 49 foul calls in 2014.
The game lasted more than two hours and was on a reasonable first-half pace with 29 foul calls. There were 38 fouls called in the second half – or 2.4 fouls every minute.
Fairmont Senior coach Corey Hines said he has been part of a game that included that many fouls.
“Yea, it’s called street ball and it was at Windmill Park (in Fairmont) and you call your own fouls,” he said, jokingly. “That’s why you put people in position to be ready. It’s hard to find the runs in the game. People have conversations about the calls, but we found a run in there. We’re all going to have to look at the film and see where it was, but we had a run.”
The run came midway through the third. The Polar Bears clung to a five-point lead at halftime, but scored 19 of the first 25 points of the second half, but only seven from the line. Senior had 11 points from the line in the first half and 25 in the second and 18 of those were in the final 9:38.
Grafton had three players with 13 points apiece – Siera Gabbert, Kaelyn Drainer and Ally Peters – but five fouled out – Gabbert, Drainer, Clark, Ally Peters and Bronlie Jacobs.
Erica Bowles had 20 points, Abby Stoller 11 and Anysa Jordan 10 for Fairmont Senior, which lost two to fouls –Jordan and Zyaira Little.
“Our team’s been working a lot on free throws,” Bowles said. “That’s probably the best we shot all year at the line. It felt like the game was super long.”
Bowles was 8-9 from the line with six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Fairmont Senior will seek the school’s second state championship. The first was as a Class AAA program in 1997. The two years prior to last season’s Class AA title game, the Polar Bears reached the semifinals.
