CHARLESTON — No. 1 seed Fairmont Senior fell behind Wyoming East 17-3 in Saturday’s Class AA title game.
By the way the Polar Bears responded, it didn’t matter..
The Polar Bears erased the deficit before halftime, then pulled away for a 51-39 victory.
“We were down 14 points and came back strong,” Fairmont Senior coach Corey Hines said.
“They had a good run and jumped out on us early. We persevered and stayed the course. We knew if we played defense, eventually it was going to turn our way.”
Fairmont Senior (25-3) claimed its second state championship in the last three years.
Marley Washenitz led all players with 18 points and seven steals. She shot 8-for-16 and grabbed five rebounds.
Anysa Jordan made three of her team’s six 3s and scored 15.
Jazz Blankenship scored 11 points for Wyoming East (24-4), which was held to 10 field goals, including five over the final three quarters. The Warriors shot just 23.3 percent.
Wyoming East’s 6-foot-4 center Emily Saunders had six points, five rebounds and 10 blocks, while Brooke Russell added nine points and 13 rebounds.
Things looked bleak early for Fairmont Senior, which didn’t make its first basket until Courtney Wilfong’s layup 13 seconds before the end of the first quarter.
“We were coming to the bench talking to each other like, ‘Listen this is the first quarter and we have a lot of time.’ We need to push it and run them.’ We’re in good shape,” Jordan said.
