By Rich Stevens
Playing in his seventh state tournament game in four seasons, nothing was going to surprise Fairmont Senior point guard Darhius Nunn.
The senior hit 10-of-13 shots and finishing with 21 points, eight steals and seven assists and the third-seeded Polar Bears pulled away late to post a 63-50 victory over No. 6 Bluefield on Wednesday at the Charleston Civic Center to kick off the 103rd boys state basketball tournament.
Nunn’s first was the 100th and he played just eight minutes, scoring two points.
“You can’t really panic, no matter how the first half goes,” said Nunn, who had six assists in the first half, but also had three of his four turnovers. “My freshman year, I was like everybody else, got caught up in the lights instead of the game.”
There were 13 lead changes during the first 16 minutes, but the Polar Bears (21-5) – who face the Bridgeport-Ravenswood winner in the semifinals at 9:30 a.m. on Friday – took the lead for good on a Nunn jump shot with 3:47 left in the third.
Jeremy Thompson kept the Beavers (15-8) in the game with a 20-point first half, but made only one of six shots after halftime. He was 8-9 before intermission.
Thompson was averaging 16.7 points entering the game.
“They changed their defense,” Thompson said. “The first half, I was feeling good. In the second half, they were bringing in someone fresh, in my face the whole second half, but I still had a couple open shots I should’ve knocked down.”
It was a simple solution to a problem.
“In the first half, they shot the ball really well,” Fairmont Senior coach said of the Beavers, who were 15-of-21 in the first half. “We thought we did a pretty good job with the press, wearing them down some, but we lost some guys in transition. Consequently, No. 10 (Thompson) had a tremendous half. In the second half, we had several guys guarding him. Stopping the dribble penetration was huge.”
The game was a rematch of the 2013 championship won by Bluefield 63-43. Nunn had no points and one shot attempt in two minutes in that game.
Fairmont Senior is 4-3 in state tournament games in which he has participated, with the seventh including 24 Bluefield turnovers and 15 steals and 12 assists for the winners.
The momentum shifted late in the first half when Fairmont Senior’s Brennan Moorehead and Jalen Bridges sandwiched a Bluefield basket with 3-pointers to cut into a five-point lead.
“I can live with the effort we displayed,” Bluefield coach Charlest “Buster” Large said. “We had a golden opportunity in the first half. They got the charging call and drained two threes. That’s a critical moment.”
Latrell “Mookie” Collier had 10 points to help Bluefield. Moorehead added 10 points for the Polar Bears while Justin Lee (9 points), Zyon Dobbs (8) and Dante Stills (8) combined for 25 points for the winners.
