PEMBROKE — The Fairmont Golden Tornadoes girls basketball team defeated the Red Springs Red Devils in the semifinal round of the Robeson County Shootout Friday evening. A fast start and aggressive defensive effort helped the Golden Tornadoes secure a 46-20 win.

Fairmont (9-1) will take on St. Pauls in the championship game Saturday at 6 p.m. at UNC Pembroke. This will be Fairmont’s first Robeson County Shootout Championship appearance since 2006, the Golden Tornadoes’ only girls Shootout title. Red Springs (2-7) faces Lumberton for third place at 2 p.m.

Twins Miah and Niah Smith have one goal along with the rest of the Fairmont squad and that is to win the shootout title.

“I mean, we ain’t never won a Shootout since, I don’t know, 2006. We just wanna win,” Niah Smith said.

“We better be ready; St. Pauls, this isn’t new to them,” Fairmont coach Marcus Thompson said. “I think the past three years they have been in the championship game. They won one of the three. This will be their fourth year. I’m sure they’re hungry and I guess we better act like our bellies are empty too or there won’t be no celebration tomorrow night.”

The Golden Tornadoes started things off early holding the Red Devils to just a pair of free throws for the majority of the first quarter while putting together an 8-2 scoring run. The first basket for the Red Devils came with 1:49 remaining in the period to make it 8-4. The Golden Tornadoes led 13-6 heading into the second quarter.

Fairmont’s defense stepped up big time, holding the Red Devils to a scoreless second quarter. The Golden Tornadoes weren’t only near perfect on defense in the second quarter, but they managed to put together a 11-0 scoring run to push their lead out to 24-6 at halftime.

“Defense was solid, and I was excited about it,” Thompson said. “We had the intensity enough to hold Red Springs scoreless in the second quarter and I think the rotations were on point during the second quarter.”

“Our defense, that’s what we known for,” Niah Smith said. “So we try to play that good. Our defense is the main priority, like what we worry about. We also worry about offense too because of course we gotta score.”

The second half started off quietly for both sides but a 13-2 run by the Golden Tornadoes to end the third quarter pushed the lead for the Golden Tornadoes out to 40-11 entering the final eight minutes. The Red Devils put up a scoring run in the fourth quarter, but the Golden Tornadoes sealed the win.

“We got a lot to work on,” Thompson said. “You cannot play the way we play tonight and go beat a team like St. Pauls. I’m not satisfied with that. There was a lot of disobedience tonight and there was a lack of communication. Yeah so, we got things we gotta work on and there’s some things we’ll talk about in film tomorrow morning.”

Niah Smith, Miah Smith along with Zariyah Locklear finished with 11 points each to lead the Golden Tornadoes in scoring; Locklear also had seven rebounds. Myasia Simms followed with seven points and four rebounds. Aniya Rogers finished the night with two points and Laila Grady with one point to round out the scoring for Fairmont.

“The intensity was low at the beginning of the game, we just went play by play, but then at half time, coach told us what it was gonna be and told us not to give up cause they wanted it better as we did,” Miah Smith said.

Monica Washington led the way for the Red Devils, finishing with 10 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks on the night. Cabanna Wilkins followed with five points, Nakira Hunt with three points and Sabria Mcphatter with two points.

“I think we played good, but we didn’t play the best, we knew Fairmont was coming into play and be ready,” Red Springs coach Tenisha McArthur said. “(Fairmont) played great defense and their a great team and I just think we weren’t.”