Ashley Vavrek showed up at Fairmont State University fresh off a high school career in which she scored more than 2,000 points for Bellaire High School.

    However, despite investing a whole lot of time into the sport of basketball, Vavrek admittedly didn’t make the transition to the rigors of the NCAA Division II ranks, and especially the West Virginia Conference, very well.

    And needless to say it didn’t sit very well with the all-time leading female scorer in Lady Big Reds’ basketball history.

    “I wasn’t ready to play when I got here,” Vavrek said during a phone interview. “I wanted to make an impact.”

    Well, it might have taken a bit longer than Vavrek would have liked, but she’s definitely making her presence felt for the Lady Falcons this winter.

    “I worked really hard in the summer to get ready for this season,” Vavrek explained. “And I guess it’s worked out pretty well.”

    Yes, it’s worked out pretty well, but it’s not done yet for her or the Falcons.

    Vavrek and company have spent the last week playing the waiting game. Fairmont State put together a brilliant run during the West Virginia Conference Tournament to capture the school’s first tournament title since 1984 and along with that came the automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The Falcons celebrated on the floor of the Charleston Civic Center after a 63-49 victory over West Virginia Wesleyan.

    “It’s really big for us,” Vavrek said of winning the conference crown. “We’re now getting ready for the national tournament, and we are really excited about that.”

    Vavrek and the rest of her teammates will gather tonight and be made aware of where they are heading for the first and second rounds of the Division II tournament.

    “We don’t even care where we go,” Vavrek said. “We’ve heard some possibilities, but we’ll wait (until Sunday) and go wherever ready to play.”

    For Vavrek, the victory in last weekend’s conference title game allowed her to do something different.

    “It was the first time I’d ever got to cut down a net, so I was pretty excited about that,” Vavrek joked.

    While there have been plenty of differences from the high school to the collegiate game, one thing has held true for Vavrek and that’s her ability to shoot foul shots. Vavrek made a living at the line at Bellaire High School and that’s continued thus far in two seasons at Fairmont State.

    It was Vavrek’s foul shooting that helped Fairmont advance to the conference tourney championship game. She meshed 14-of-14 chances in the quarterfinal victory over West Virginia State. She then knocked down four straight in the semifinals and was true on both of her attempts in the title game. Before the tourney shifted to Charleston, Vavrek missed her first two attempts, but canned her next four. All told, she connected on 24-of-26 in the tournament and by meshing her final 24, she established a new Fairmont standard for consecutive foul shots made.

    “When I go to the line, I am focused on nothing, but the game,” Vavrek said of her approach to foul shooting. “When you start worrying about the crowd or what’s going on around you is when you miss foul shots. It’s all mental. You just have to concentrate.”

    For the season, Vavrek has connected on 93-of-113 attempts, which is good for an 82 percent clip, which leads all Fairmont State regulars. She gets it done in the clutch as well as evidenced by the fact that she is 32-of-35 from the stripe in the final minutes of games.

    All told, Vavrek is the third-leading scorer on the team, netting 10.8 points a game. She’s started in all 31 games and is averaging more than 31 minutes of floor time.

    “I am pretty happy with how my season has gone,” Vavrek said. “I still need to work on my intensity a little bit.”

    Vavrek and the Lady Falcons entered the West Virginia Conference Tournament as the third seed, but according to Vavrek the squad has put it back together after struggling through a stretch of the season.

    “We’ve been playing really down the stretch of the season,” Vavrek offered. “We’re playing as a team, and I believe we can win a few games in this tournament.”

    Fairmont State — which is less than two hours from the Ohio Valley — makes trips to the Northern Panhandle each year to Wheeling Jesuit and West Liberty, which usually means a home game in essence for Vavrek and John Marshall’s Jamie Merinar.

    “My teammates kind of make fun of me a little bit when we go to West Liberty or Jesuit because I have my own little crowd there cheering for me,” Vavrek joked.

    As for the academic side of college, Vavrek is making steady progress toward a degree in exercise science.

    “I am on schedule and classes are going well,” Vavrek said. “I love Fairmont State, and I am glad I came here. I love the campus, I love my teammates and it’s just a really good school.”

    It was quite a week of hoops. One that prep athletes around the Buckeye State won’t soon forget and one that I won’t soon forget. However, it’s one my car would like to forget I have a feeling. Seeing that more than 600 miles were logged this week just by my car en route to hoop tournaments.

    Fellow T-L Staffer Rich Gibson and I boarded up for Morgantown Monday for the Mountaineers and Pittsbrugh game and then headed to Columbus for the girls’ tournament on Thursday in Columbus. During Tuesday and Wednesday, a couple of buddies and I headed to Canton and Athens for Division IV and III regional play, respectively. Friday, I tried to head back to the state tournament, but hit Zanesville and opted to return the car to Belmont County due to the quickly deteriorating weather pattern, which snarled traffic in Ohio.

    Anyway, it was quite a week while this week will be a little bittersweet. After this Saturday, basketball will be officially over in the area on the high school level.

    Let’s hope the weather doesn’t throw anymore wrenches into the plans of the several thousand who will converge on Ohio State University this weekend for the boys state tournaments. The weekend is too special for too many people to have Old Man Winter sticking his head into the mix.

    Former Bridgeport High standout Brittany Hocker continues to show her skills at the Division I level in the sport of track and field. Hocker — who is a senior at the University of Akron — can call herself a Mid-American Conference champion. Hocker raced to the 200 meter dash title at the recent indoor championships held a couple of weeks ago. She turned in a 24.27 for the title. She was second in the 60 meter dash, posting a time of 7.62. Akron claimed its fourth consecutive MAC Indoor Championship in the process.

      One week from today, people will be sitting in front of their television awaiting the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field. I am going to test my college hoops knowledge and try to predict the top seeds even though a lot can be said for this week’s Championship Week, which is probably a more entertaining week than the actual tournament. My top seeds are: UCLA, North Carolina, Memphis and Tennessee. I will also go out on a limb and say that Ohio State’s bubble will burst and West Virginia is firmly in the tournament.

    As the boys’ regional tournaments resume today and the girls’ state finals are pushed to Monday after their bouts with the weather, I am going to try to look into my crystal ball and predict the boys and girls’ state champions.

    On the boys’ side: Division I — Cincinnati St. Xavier; Division II: Toledo Libbey; Division III: Anna; Division IV: Bedford St. Peter Chanel.

On the girls’ side: Division I — Cincinnati Mt. Notre Dame; Division II: Kettering Alter; Division III: Versailles; Division IV: Columbus Africentric.

     As for the state tournament, The Times Leader will be providing coverage of the boys’ tournament both in the paper and on our website through my blog this weekend. Be sure to check it out at www.timesleaderonline.com

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Staskey can be reached at sstaskey@timesleaderonline.com