Fairmont State advanced to its first-ever NCAA Division II Final Four on Wednesday afternoon with an 86-68 victory over Rollins in the national quarterfinals in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
With the win, the top-seeded Falcons (33-2) will take on No. 4 Bellarmine, which beat the Colorado School of Mines 92-72 in the second quarterfinal matchup of the day.
Point guard Jason Jolly led FSU with a career-high 28 points, making seven 3-pointers in the victory. The Falcons also got 21 points from Vonte Montgomery and Thomas Wimbush finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
After Rollins (24-11) stormed back at the end of the first half to make it a one-point game heading into halftime, Fairmont State went on a 14-2 run early in the second half that helped extend the lead out to 15 points and the Falcons never looked back from there. FSU would lead by as many as 25 points in the game.
And while it was scoring at a good pace, Fairmont State's defense helped to pave the way to the victory in the final 20 minutes. After allowing Rollins to shoot 61 percent in the first half, the Tars shot just 37 percent to close out the game.
Sam Philpott led Rollins with 22 points and he was joined in double figures by Jeff Merton, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Eric Castaneda and Joey Galvis scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Tars.
The victory also gave this Fairmont State team a single-season record for wins.