TABOR CITY — For a team that prides itself on its defense, the Fairmont boys basketball team sees improvement needed going forward from its 73-66 win over Red Springs in Thursday’s Three Rivers Conference tournament semifinals at South Columbus.
Fairmont (22-4) never was able to pull away with a comfortable margin from Red Springs (13-11), even with the Red Devils failing to capitalize on the offensive end. Fairmont and its defense has a quick turnaround as it meets Whiteville in tonight’s conference title game at South Columbus, with tipoff set for around 8 p.m.
“We’ve got to come out and play better defense and do a much better job of rebounds and communicating with each other on the floor. We didn’t do that tonight and it almost cost us,” Fairmont coach Montrell McNair said. “They got lax and that explains it all in a nutshell. The defense was too lax.”
The Golden Tornadoes led by as much as 10 in the first half, but in the second half, its defense couldn’t string stops to distance itself from Red Springs.
In the third quarter, the Red Devils cut the lead quickly to four, 43-39, on a Bradley Hunt 3-pointer inside of five minutes to go in the frame, but Fairmont had its answer from Julius Caulder, Derrick Arnette and Jarique Moore to go up 50-41 in a minute in the half.
Nichorie West’s basket with 2:24 left in the third cut the Fairmont lead back to 50-47 before Moore closed the period on a 5-0 run by himself. Moore had a game-high 21 points in his second game back from injury.
“I saw him get a little bit of a rhythm,” McNair said of Moore. “He was a little out of sorts early and then he settled down and started relaxing a little bit. He was a little too excited attacking the basket and he didn’t have to attack the basket, but take what they were giving him.”
Red Springs trimmed the Fairmont advantage to five to start the fourth quarter, but that was the closest it was able to get. The biggest downfall for the Red Devils in the game was its woes at the foul line for the second game in a row, going 20-for-40 as a team.
“I thought we got what we wanted on the offensive end, we just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities,” said Red Spring coach Glenn Patterson. “Our goal was to be in the bonus or the double bonus by the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter. We got what we wanted, we got to the free throw line, but we didn’t capitalize on it.”
Caulder added 19 points and Arnette had 11 points for Fairmont. Red Spring was led by West with 19 points and 15 from Hunt. Fairmont has won 22 games straight in the series.
East Columbus advances with comeback win
After being held in check for the first three quarters, the reigning Three Rivers Conference Player of the Year Charity Powell keyed a comeback for East Columbus to advance to its fourth straight conference tournament title game.
Powell scored 10 of her game-best 24 points in the fourth as the Lady Gators topped Fairmont 67-60 in the semifinals. Red Springs will take on East Columbus in the girls championship game that tips off at 6 p.m.
Fairmont (12-13) had a 46-40 lead going into the fourth quarter, but a stretch of seven straight from Powell took East Columbus (19-3) from a 54-53 hole to up 60-54 with 1:54 remaining to play.
In the first three quarters, Fairmont looked more composed and more comfortable on offense behind Kiara Page, but fatigue set in during the fourth. Page scored 20 of her team-best 21 points in the first, second and third quarters, including 10 of Fairmont’s 15 points in the first period.
Krishay Moore had 16 points for Fairmont. Tia Campbell added 14 for East Columbus.
