Gallery Greg Barnett
Shady Spring – In a battle of all-stars, there were still mismatches to be exploited and that ultimately made the difference.
Morgantown’s Cam Dansler was fouled with 1.8 seconds left, splitting a pair of free throws to deliver the Mid-State Automotive Class A-AAAA All-Stars a 117-116 win over the C. Adam Toney Class AA-AAA All-Stars in the Scott Brown-Little General Classic Saturday evening at Shady Spring High School.
The 6-foot-7 Dansler capped a terrific performance with a game-high 27 points on 9 of 15 shooting, adding seven rebounds and winning MVP honors.
Riding the hot hand, Mid-State and James Monroe coach Matt Sauvage knew he wanted the ball in Dansler’s hands with the game tied.
“When we called a timeout we knew we wanted to get the shot from Cam,” Sauvage said. “We knew we had a mismatch. Basically we wanted to spread the floor and get it to Cam and see what happens. He thankfully made something happen with it.”
The game had a little bit of everything you’d expect and some you wouldn’t from an all-star event. There were alley-oops from Class AAA title competitors Braden Chapman and DeSean Goode, 193 shot attempts with 113 coming from beyond the arc and even a player fouling out in the aforementioned Chapman. But in the end the event served its purpose of entertaining while bringing players together from every corner of the state.
“We worked on the alley-top yesterday and they executed it well,” C. Adam Toney and Shady Spring coach Ronnie Olson said. “What a fun day. I coached this one year before but it was awesome having my four guys in there with guys we’ve had rivalries with. I knew it was going to come down to one possession and I’m not upset with the loss. That’s just fun. That was just a heckuva game and having my guys together there was awesome. Braden did foul out, he couldn’t help himself but I had a good Saturday.”
Olson’s squad came out firing leading throughout most of the opening half before the Mid-State All-Stars tied the game at 56 heading into the break.
Goode, a two-time champ at Fairmont Senior, led Mid-Sate with 16 at the break, followed by 12 from Hoover’s Eli Robertson. Danser was a flamethrower on the other side with 20 points while George Washington’s Ben Nicol had 13.
In the second half the see saw swung both ways.
The Mid-State squad raced out to a 14-point lead with just under eight minutes to play, but the C. Adam Toney stars had a swift answer. Four consecutive 3s, two each from Shady’s Cole Chapman and Logan’s Scotty Browning helped make it a 101-97 game. A pass from Braden Chapman to Bluefield’s Caleb Fuller erased its deficit entirely putting the AA-AAA squad up 106-105. The game remained tied at 116 from the 1:33 point of the half until Danser nailed the winning free throw.
The C. Adam Toney stars were led by Goode’s 20 points while Braden Chapman scored 15 and grabbed 10 rebounds. Scotty Browning added 19.
Brendan Hoffman (GW) and Brody Davis each scored 13 to back Danser’s performance while Adam Seams added 11.
For both Olson and Sauvage it was a bittersweet day. Olson coached four of the five seniors (Cam Manns, Jaedan Holstein and Cole and Braden Chapman) that helped Shady Spring to three consecutive Class AAA title games for the final time while Sauvage coached his own trio of players (Collin Fox, Josh Burks and Eli Allen) who helped the Mavericks capture the last two Class A titles.
“I’m not going to say there will never be a three-year stitch like this, you never say never, but it’ll be hard to top,” Sauvage said. “On the court they’ve put together something very special that you’re not going to see in any sport. I’ll always be their second dad so to speak for a long time and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“This is the best one I’ve been around,” Olson said. “I’ve been a part of two of these games before this and home court means a lot. I also get to do it with four of my guys. They mean everything to me. When the Shady guys did something you could still hear the crowd. Seeing them together on the bench was awesome and my little girls’ travel team got to play before the girls game and they put that on Video Production. This was a special day.”
***
Scott’s Reece Carden won the 3-point shootout while Shady’s Cameron Manns, the runner up, won the dunk contest by edging out Brody Davis.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94