FAIRMONT — The Fairmont boys basketball team has carried a chip on its shoulder for the last few weeks, and Monday’s game against Whiteville to open the Three Rivers Conference tournament was another chance for the Golden Tornadoes to seek revenge to those that had defeated them earlier in the season.
After two losses to Whiteville, Fairmont got what it wanted as it won its eighth game in a row with a 64-45 win at home to advance to the Wednesday’s semifinals.
“It’s building our confidence heading into the playoffs. Right now you need to be playing your best basketball,” Fairmont coach Montrell McNair said. “They were tired of being picked on and laughed at about being one of the worst teams in Fairmont history. They wanted to come out wanting to prove the people wrong in our community and our county. We’ve been proving a lot of people wrong that have been talking that way.”
No. 4 Fairmont (13-12) will take on top-seeded West Columbus at home on Wednesday.
Fueling the win was the play of the newfound duo for the Golden Tornadoes in Jayvon Morris and Dwayne Davis. Transferring in from Lumberton, Davis has provided a lift for Fairmont in the last three weeks, and against No. 5 Whiteville (14-11) he posted a triple-double of 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
“I pushed the ball, boxed out and ran the break for my team,” Davis said. “It feels good to be back.”
Morris led the team with 26 points, and said that the addition of Davis is what the team lacked in the first half of the year.
“He brings ball handling to the team and that’s what we needed earlier in the season,” Morris said. “He makes the right decisions at the right time. He goes hard out there for all four quarters, all 32 minutes. He never gives up and he stays calm. That’s what I like about him, he plays calm.”
Whiteville swept the season series in two close games that were both decided by less than 10 points both times, and that was close on the minds of the Golden Tornadoes on Monday.
“We have been preparing and watching film and studying them to see how we can come out and get the win,” Morris said. “We got the win by playing hard and switching up our defenses.”
After a back-and-forth first half, Fairmont stretched the lead out in the third quarter behind its defense that was too much for Whiteville to handle. Fairmont scored 12 of the first 14 points in the second half, led mostly by Morris and Davis with a combined nine points as its lead grew to 38-24 midway through the period.
The lead grew to as much as 20 points in the fourth as Fairmont continued its dominance on both sides of the ball.
Whiteville’s Cameron Richardson controlled the paint for much of the first half on his way to tallying a team-best 16 points.
Kaheem Pittman had nine points for Fairmont.
For Fairmont, taking on West Columbus is another set of losses it wants to make up for in the semifinals.
“We’ve got to come out with the same intensity we had tonight from the beginning,” McNair said. “They beat us by 20 when we played them last and I think we are a much better team now.”
