It took three overtimes, but Fairmont State prevailed over West Liberty, 122-114, in the Mountain East Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon.
MEC Tournament MVP Rudy Fitzgibbons (6'0''-PG) III led the Falcons with 26 points, pacing a blistering Fairmont State shooting night by going 6-for-12 from beyond the arc.
“It’s overwhelming, but we just wanted to give ourselves a chance to win and I think we did that,” Fitzgibbons said. “We trusted coaches, players on the bench, players in the game and we trust the work we put in all year. We were ready for this.”
As brilliant as Fitzgibbons’ individual performance was, it was that trust he had in his teammates that pushed the Falcons to their first MEC Tournament Championship since 2021 inside Wheeling's WesBanco Arena.
Fitzgibbons hit a jumper with three minutes left in the third overtime to give FSU a 112-108 lead, but he fouled out on the next possession. All he could do from there was watch his teammates try to close out the game.
“I definitely wished I could be on the court, but anybody’s ready to play on our team,” he said. “Guys step up all the time, we’ve seen it throughout the year, so I wasn’t too worried.”
Fairmont State outscored West Liberty, 10-4, over the final three minutes without Fitzgibbons to secure the hard-fought victory.
“We just locked in,” said Sam Emich. “We still made mistakes, but we made up for it with good offense, rebounding and flying around. Just a crazy rollercoaster of emotions at the end there.”
It took trust in each other to even get to a third overtime, as the Falcons had to tie the game with less than 15 seconds at the end of regulation and in each of the first two extra periods.
All three times, Fairmont State coach Tim Koenig chose to leave the ball in Fitzgibbons’ hands, allowing his players to decide how to try and extend the game.
“In our timeouts, we had two actions and it was their call,” Koenig said. “Players made plays.”
All three times, Fitzgibbons drove into the lane for a layup and missed, but Andre Harris was there for the game-tying putback.
“We wanted to just attack them,” Fitzgibbons said. “Me and Andre talked about how if I didn’t make it, he’d be there for the putback.”
Harris tied the game, 86-86, with two seconds left in regulation, 95-95 with one second left in the first overtime and 104-104 with 13 seconds left in the second overtime.
In all three scenarios, the Hilltoppers were forced to defend either a three-point shot that could have won Fairmont State the game or the layup for the tie.
“It’s uncomfortable because you don’t want to foul, but you want to have good ball pressure,” WLU coach Ben Howlett said. “You don’t want to give up a three, so you guard them closely. You have to pick and choose what you’re going to do there. They missed the shot but got the offensive rebound and put it back up and in. That’s the stuff that kind of frustrates you.”
Howlett and the Hilltoppers had to be wary of a three-pointer because the Falcons shot the lights out for the entire game. As a team, Fairmont State shot 57.1 percent (16-for-28) from beyond the arc. Even as the game wore on and FSU’s players were logging north of 40 minutes of action, the Falcons made both of their three-point attempts in the third overtime.
“It’s a good thing (Koenig) recruits guys who hit shots when it matters,” Emich joked.
West Liberty’s up-tempo, frenetic style powered the Hilltoppers to 27 wins this season, but early on, the Falcons were able to turn the Hilltoppers’ gameplan against them.
Fairmont State played fast, disruptive defense over the first 10 minutes of action, which saw the Falcons jump out to an early double-digit lead, 20-7.
West Liberty recovered to lead 44-43 at halftime. After opening the game just 3-of-15 from the floor, WLU shot 14-of-20 to close the half.
“We can score in bunches really fast,” Howlett said. “When we’re down 10 or 11, that’s nothing, we can make that disappear real quick. There was no panic within our team when we were down.”
A 21-8 run saw the Hilltoppers take an 11-point lead midway through the second half, but the Falcons were able to battle back and eventually tie the game in the final seconds.
Fairmont State only played seven players throughout the game. Five players logged 40 or more minutes, and yet, the fatigue never showed on the court.
“You don’t know it’s going to go to triple overtime, you just play the next play,” Koenig said. “The work they put in, the conditioning we do in the preseason and during the season obviously paid off tonight. Just proud of the guys’ toughness and grit.”
Behind Fitzgibbons’ 26 points, Emich scored 24 and Tyheil Peterson (5'11''-PG) finished with 20. David Jolinder (6'6''-SF-2001) played nearly 50 minutes and scored 17, while Harris finished with 14. Tommy Williams (6'2''-G) had 11 points and 14 rebounds for a double-double.
All-Tournament selections Lanyc Shuler and JJ Harper led West Liberty with 23 and 20 points, respectively. Kyler D'Augustino (6'1''-G) also finished with 20, while Finley Woodward (6'7''-F-2003) had 19 and Kameron Tinsley had 17.
The Falcons pulled off a Championship Sunday sweep, with Fairmont State's women's basketball team prevailing in the earlier championship game 79-65 over Glenville State.
With the win, Fairmont State earned the Mountain East Conference’s automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament.

MEC Final:
Fairmont State - West Liberty 122-114, 3OT

MEC Semifinals:
West Liberty - Concord 112-85
Fairmont State - Glenville State 75-62

MEC Quarterfinals:
West Liberty - Davis & Elkins 102-77
Fairmont State - Point Park 68-55
Charleston - Glenville State 65-77
Concord - W.Va. State 92-84

MEC First Round:
Frostburg State - Point Park 71-74
Davis & Elkins - Wheeling 63-61

Courtesy of mountaineast.org