The Fayetteville State Broncos fought through numerous obstacles in the CIAA men’s basketball championship game, battling back from a 14-point deficit to defeat the Bluefield State Big Blue 71-68.
In their fourth appearance in a CIAA championship game since 2020, the Broncos claim their second title (first since 2022).
This game featured an interesting storyline with both teams’ coaches having been on the opposite sideline this time last year.
Bluefield State head coach Luke D’Alessio had served in a similar role at Fayetteville State for the previous six seasons, after which his contract was not renewed.
Looking to fill the vacant role, FSU looked to Devin Hoehn, who had been the head coach at Bluefield for the previous four seasons, having just led the team to a CIAA championship berth.
Fayetteville State rode into the CIAA tournament riding a 14-game winning streak, having not lost a game in the calendar year.
Claiming the CIAA South division title, the Broncos started their tournament run, averting disaster in the quarterfinals in a hard-fought 86-83 win over Bowie State.
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They had a much easier time in the semifinals against Johnson C. Smith, cruising to the championship game in a 90-68 blowout.
Bluefield State’s unlikely run to the tournament started rocky, losing its first eight games against Division II opponents.
However, they began to catch fire as conference play began, ending their slate with an 11-5 conference record to secure the three-seed in the Northern division.
Bluefield State showed fight in another CIAA final
In the opening round of the CIAA tournament, the Big Blue rode a strong first half to a 65-55 win over Winston-Salem State.
They moved into the quarterfinals after beating Claflin, overcoming a double-digit deficit in the second half to take them down by the narrow score of 70-68.
Finally, their long road to the championship game was cemented with a 71-66 win in the semifinals against the defending champion Virginia State Trojans.
Bluefield State controlled this game in the early going, riding some hot shooting and some fastbreak buckets off turnovers to build a 28-14 lead.
They scored layups off consecutive forced turnovers and hit four of their first five three-pointers, including two on consecutive possessions to go up by 14.
In addition, the Big Blue dominated the boards, outrebounding Fayetteville State 22-4 in the first half.
Despite this, the Broncos kept the game closer than it should have been, thanks to Terrell Williams keeping the offense afloat with some hot shooting from deep.
Williams hit all three of his three-point attempts in the first half, surpassing his season-high (2) with 23 minutes left in the game.
In the end, Bluefield State took a 40-32 lead into the halftime locker room.
Broncos willed themselves to victory
Heading into the locker room, Coach Hoehn made it clear to his team that to win, they needed to pick up the pressure.
“We knew coming into this game it was going to be a dogfight,” said Hoehn about the confidence he had in his team to come back from a double-digit deficit. “We told these guys, ‘they can be up in the first half, but they have to do this for 40 minutes.’ They are a heck of a team, and Coach Luke [D’Alessio] is a great coach, but they also played three games before this. This was their fourth game in four days, and I told these guys that if we could really ramp up this pressure in the second half, [Bluefield State’s] legs are going to go.”
That came to fruition as the Broncos found ways to generate stops, forcing 11 turnovers, leading to 16 points on the other end in the second half.
The fatigue Coach Hoehn referred to was echoed by Coach D’Alessio as an explanation for their turnovers in the second half, saying, “Guys get a little tired at the end of the game. We just didn’t get the extra effort to get open; it’s hard to simulate anything like that.”
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While the Big Blue held on to the lead for as long as they could, the Broncos’ aggressive offense was too much for them to handle, as they got to the free-throw line and converted to take a 58-57 lead with 5:48 remaining.
Both teams would trade big shots back-and-forth down the stretch, including a three-pointer by Myles Pierre with 32 seconds left that made it a one-possession game.
Bluefield State got the ball back with one more shot to win the game, but could not get it to go.
Fayetteville State will now look forward to a berth in the Division II National Championship tournament, having entered the week as the seventh-ranked team in the Atlantic region.
