Saturday afternoon inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, the Class AA Boys’ Basketball State Championship game did not go the way Bluefield had envisioned.
Neither did the championship tilt for the Beavers back in 2012.
Why is that of any interest to Beaver Nation, you ask?
The two years following the 2012 championship loss, Bluefield responded by winning back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.
After dropping the championship game to Tug Valley in 2012, Bluefield beat Fairmont Senior and Robert C. Byrd by double-digit margins the following two years.
“We were here in 2012, 2013 and 14 and have come back each year,” Bluefield head coach Buster Large said after Saturday’s championship loss to Poca. “I have coached all these young men, not only in one sport, but two. They are absolutely fine student-athletes. They have made a lot of people proud.”
Bluefield will lose three key seniors in point guard Ja’eon Flack, Chance Johnson who average 10 points per game, and Steven Addair.
However, the cupboard is far from bare for the boys from Mercer County.
Leading scorer, Caleb Fuller is just a junior and averages over 19 points per game, while sophomore standout R.J. Hairston averages 15 points per game.
Hairston has developed into an athletic threat in the paint with great ability to get the ball to the rim.
Both players are looking to build on this year’s state tournament experience in the coming seasons.
“It meant a lot to get to states, but we couldn’t win it,” Hairston said. “We are going to work harder to get back up here (next season).
“We are just going to use it as fuel for the fire for next year,” Fuller said. “We are mad right now, so we are going to take that into the off-season and work even harder.”
The Beavers showed signs of resiliency this year when they dropped the sectional championship game in the Brushfork Armory and had to go on the road in regional play.
In the Region 3 co-final, Bluefield went to Chapmanville and knocked off the Tigers to advance to the state tournament.
In the first two games in Charleston, Bluefield exacted some revenge by beating Wyoming East before they upset St. Mary’s in the semifinal round.
Hairston was named to the All-Tournament team.
“We have been here before and we are going to be back,” Large said. “We are going to go back and work harder this off season, lifts weights and get back at it in November. I am ready to go tomorrow.”
