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WHEELING -- The old adage survive and advance was never more fitting than it was for second-seeded Fairmont State here Saturday evening against sixth-seeded Davis & Elkins in the semifinals of annual men's Mountain East Conference Basketball Tournament at WesBanco Arena.
In a game which wasn't pretty, the Falcons did just enough to hold off the much-improved Senators and record a 76-65 victory.
Fairmont State faced top-seeded and regular-season MEC champion West Liberty in Sunday night's title game.
"It was a great win for us," Falcons coach Tim Koenig said. "Congratulations to D&E on a historic season. They have a helluva program."
Senior center Seth Younkin, who averaged just three points a game this season, entered the contest with Fairmont leading 51-46 and over the course of a four-minute span reeled off seven points, handed out an assist on a basket and pulled down three of his four rebounds. As a result, FSU went on a 17-8 run to open its biggest lead at 68-54 with just 4:13 remaining.
D&E coach Daniel Mondragon agreed that Younkin was a difference maker for the Falcons in the waning minutes.
"That's what great, experienced teams do," Mondragon said. "They have guys who step up. Look at (Zyon) Dobbs last night and what he did for them against Glenville. Tonight that was Younkin for them. He might not be a great scorer, but he knows who he is and what his role is and he impacts the game at a high level. He did that tonight in a crucial situation with a couple of offensive rebounds and a couple of stick backs."
D&E tried to rally back, but Fairmont, the league's leading free throw team, made 8-of-10 in the final 1:21 of the contest to hold off the Senators.
Fairmont placed four players in double figures in the win. The Falcons also got 13 points and a team-high 10 rebounds from Dobbs and 11 points from both George Mangas and Fonz Hale. The double-double for Dobbs was his second of the tournament.
"At one point we were 13-12 this season and we needed one win to make some school history," said the Senators' Sam Rolle IV, who led his team with 18 points, four assists and three steals. "Once we got that win it was like a lot of pressure lifted off of our backs and we started playing with more and more confidence. We had said we wanted to win out and come into this tournament with a lot of confidence and that's what we did."
D&E, which finished the season with 19 wins -- the most victories for the program since the 1950-51 campaign -- also got 17 points and nine rebounds from Vadim Clanet and eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds from Breland Walton.