Fairmont State completes MEC double, seeded 2nd in NCAA regional

“Today what I said wasn’t good,” Anderson said with a laugh. “The point got across, though.”

When Anderson relinquished the floor at halftime senior guard Alyssa DeAngelo took it over, just like she did the game for the Falcons in the second half.

“At halftime right before we started I looked at my teammates and I said ‘I’m not losing this. We’re going to do this together,’” said DeAngelo, who finished with 35 points, 23 of which came in the final two quarters garnering her tournament most valuable player honors. “It’s as simple as that. I wasn’t losing that game. I was going to do everything I could for us to win that game and the best part is my teammates did the exact same thing.”

DeAngelo’s 35-point performance was the eighth highest in a single MEC Tournament game. She also went a perfect 16-of-16 at the foul line setting new records for made free throws in a championship game and free throw percentage (1.000).

Eleven of DeAngelo’s 23 second-half points came in the pivotal third quarter when Fairmont wiped out a 39-34 halftime deficit forcing 11 Yellow Jacket turnovers and outscoring them 23-8 to build a 10-point, 57-47, lead of its own heading to the final 10 minutes.

“Give credit to Fairmont,” State coach Charles Marshall said. “They’ve had an amazing season. Hats off to them for taking care of business today.

“For my team, we did everything we were supposed to do to come out victorious today, but we just fell short and the third quarter was probably the biggest difference in the ball game. We just weren’t able to recover from that.”

State’s Emyah Fortenberry, who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, agrees.

“There was a lot of pressure coming out, making sure we were ready to play,” Fortenberry said. “We got a little sloppy with the ball in the third quarter and didn’t take care of the ball as much as we had in previous quarters. I think it was really us, who beat ourselves with 11 turnovers in that quarter. We needed to do a better job of taking care of the ball and didn’t.”

State finished the game with 28 total turnovers, 15 of which came in the second half.

DeAngelo scored 12 fourth-quarter points as Fairmont answered every challenge the Yellow Jackets had for it in the final 10 minutes.

Jalen Gibbs chipped in 14 points, seven rebounds and a tournament final record six steals, four of which came in the game-changing third period for FSU. The Falcons also 13 points from Leslie Huffman, 10 points and four assists from Madeline Huffman and four points, a team-high eight rebounds and four steals from Katy Darnell.

Imani Reid finished with 14 points, while Destine Fields added 10 points and six rebounds for State, who saw its eight-game winning streak halted with the loss. The Yellow Jackets fell to 21-10.

Fairmont State, which won the MEC regular-season title as well, improved to 26-5 with its 10th straight victory. It’s the first time in FSU history that the women’s basketball team has won a regular season and conference tournament championship in the same year. The 26 wins are also the second-most in program history at Fairmont.

“To achieve this now feels amazing,” FSU’s Leslie Huffman said. “As a player I don’t think a lot of us realized how special it is to win that regular season title.

“Our strength and conditioning coach was talking to us the other day and told us we should take a second and soak it in because in the tournament it’s about who can be the best for a stretch of three or four days. In the regular season it’s about who can be the best over a stretch of months. To be able to win both says a lot about our team and coaches.”

Huffman and Gibbs both joined DeAngelo on the all-tournament team from Fairmont. State’s Fortenberry and Z.Z. Russell were also selected to the eight-member all-tourney squad with Russell also receiving the Commissioner’s Heart and Hustle Award.

Rounding out the all-tourney team were Concord’s Abbie Smith, University of Charleston’s Clarrissa Francis and West Virginia Wesleyan’s Emma Witt.

With Sunday’s win, Fairmont State receives the MEC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional and is seeded second.

The Falcons will host the regional and take on West Chester on Friday at 5 p.m.