Washenitz hits 1K career points, Maier records triple-double as Fairmont Senior rolls Philip Barbour

Mar. 9—FAIRMONT — When Fairmont Senior took on Philip Barbour on Monday at the Fairmont Senior High Field House, the aesthetics of the game as a whole from the Polar Bears belied the magnitude of the moment at hand for star junior Marley Washenitz.

Fairmont Senior trudged through an endless loop of jump balls and reoccurring mosh pits of physicality to record a 67-33 win over the Colts, but amid a contest that was mostly defined by rugged sloppiness, Washenitz authored one particular instance of purified excellence.

With the Polar Bears up double digits and counting over the Colts in the second quarter, Washenitz popped free on a baseline out of bounds play and drilled a jumper that gave her nine points for the game and 1,000 points for her high school career.

"Obviously, I've had to have my teammates and coaches and everyone who's been involved in my life in basketball to help me, and it's just a really good accomplishment and something really cool to experience in my lifetime," said Washenitz, who finished the game with a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds, to go with six steals and three assists. "It's also something for kids who look up to me to keep them motivated and keep them working because you get rewarded for your work."

"To do that as a junior is incredible," Fairmont Senior coach Corey Hines said. "It shows that she's been putting in the work, and I really expect nothing less. I mean, before it's all said and done, she'll be up on that chart with the assists also and probably the blocked shots and everything else — our nickname for her is 'Stat sheet' because that's what she does, she fills the stat sheet.

"So I'm very happy and very proud of her for achieving those goals."

"It's about doing the small things like staying in the gym after hours, going and doing conditioning one day, even during COVID just going out in my driveway and working on my ball handling on my own," said Washenitz, who crossed the 1K points threshold in just 57 career games. "So I'm seeing how my hard work pays off and it makes me want to work out even more."

While Washenitz achieved an all-time career milestone in the Polar Bears' victory, it was Fairmont Senior junior forward Meredith Maier who put together a solo game benchmark on Monday as the Grafton transfer piled up a monstrous triple-double of 19 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 steals, to go with three assists.

"Congratulations to Marley (first off), it's a really big honor to transfer to this school and get to see a really close friend score her 1,000th point," said Maier. "(In my case), I wasn't satisfied with where we were, so I think that really pushed me. I wanted to win by 85 and I just wasn't comfortable with where we were, so that drove me to keep playing tenacious defense, keep getting teammates involved, getting every loose ball possible and just constantly grinding."

The Washenitz-Maier duo was at the forefront of what was a hard-nosed, if not necessarily glamorous, performance from the entire FSHS roster as the Polar Bears forced 32 PBHS turnovers and held the Colts to just 31% shooting.

"A lot of credit goes out to our teammates because without them, Marley wouldn't have gotten her 1,000th point and I wouldn't have gotten a triple-double," Maier said. "They pushed us."

Fairmont Senior also got 13 points, three assists and two steals from Laynie Beresford, 11 points and four assists from Emily Starn, and a made 3 apiece from Bekah Jenkins and Reagan Blasher.

For Philip Barbour, Alyssa Hill led the way with 11 points and six rebounds, while freshman Bralyn Sparks also cracked double digits with 10 points. Emily Dennison also grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds for the Colts.

"It was a really physical and heated game, and I think you could see that in our faces," said Maier, who was all over the court for the entire game as she racked up deflections with her defensive energy and vacuumed in rebounds with relentless pursuit.

Fairmont Senior mounted a 17-10 lead after the first quarter, led 30-16 at the half, and blew the game open to 50-27 after three, but the Polar Bears were hardly foolproof as they shot just 35.7% from the field and turned the ball over 15 times against a frisky and pesky Colts squad.

"We got to get better," Hines said, "but I'm saying that and it was still, what, a 30-point game against a team that went triple overtime with RCB, which is supposed to be one of the better teams, so we'll take it."

"It was an eventful, fun game," Maier said. "It was one for the books."

Email Bradley Heltzel at bheltzel@timeswv.com or follow him on Twitter @bradheltzTWV.