Photos by Brad Davis
Meadow Bridge – The first meeting this season between Greenbrier West and Meadow Bridge was a lopsided win for the Cavaliers in Charmco.
Friday night in the Wild Blue Yonder at Meadow Bridge, the rematch was a fight to the finish.
The difference down the stretch was a pair of Greenbrier West seniors.
Leading by just two points after three quarters, Chase McClung and Elijah Perkins were the difference makers for the No. 7 ranked Cavaliers.
McClung scored 13 of his game-high 27 points, while Perkins scored six critical points in the fourth period, allowing West to escape with a 62-50 win over the Wildcats.
“When you go on the road in a hostile environment, people get loud and upset. Then they make some shots and they get into the game. I give Meadow Bridge credit for coming in here and doing some really good things,” Greenbrier West head coach Jared Robertson said. “We couldn’t make any shots early and it’s a ballgame. To our kid’s credit, they kept fighting and pushed the lead out in the fourth quarter and we got out here with a win.”
After the tough outing in Charmco, Meadow Bridge head coach Brandon Wickline had no complaints about his team’s play Friday.
“That is probably the best game we have played all year. I thought we came out intense tonight and the kids executed our game plan fairly well,” Wickline said. “When we played them last time, the first quarter killed us. We didn’t want it to be that big of a hole this time. I feel like we hung around and gave ourselves a chance.”
After trailing by 18 in the first quarter previously, the Wildcats were down just eight Friday.
The lead quickly went to 10 when McClung scored on a curl down the lane, but Meadow Bridge proved early that it was not going down easy.
A three-point play by Seaton Mullins and a pair of deep 3-pointers from Jared Gladwell and Conner Mullins made it a 19-18 ball game.
However, McClung quickly changed the momentum with eight points over the final four minutes of the half, including two scores inside the final 13 seconds.
When the horn sounded, the visitors were up 31-18.
The first five minutes of the third quarter belonged to the Wildcats who outscored West 14-2 to again get back within one point.
A key moment in the third quarter came when McClung was whistled for a personal foul before he was assessed a technical foul right afterwards.
“I think the referee misheard me because I was just talking to my teammates. I told the team that it was my fault on the foul,” McClung explained. “Whether he misheard me or not, that was a big hit on our team, especially with me having to go out of the game.”
McClung returned for the fourth quarter with one thing on his mind.
“I told them I would make it back up to them. Coach Rob has all the confidence in the world in me. I got two looks at a 3 and I luckily knocked them down,” McClung said. “My teammates found me with open looks. Really every point I scored came from my teammates tonight.”
A bucket from Michael Kanode gave West some breathing room before McClung buried his first 3-pointer of the quarter.
After Dakota Hayes scored for the Wildcats, McClung struck again off an inbound play to give the Cavaliers a 48-40 lead.
“He made a big 3 and then we ran an inbounds play for him and he made another one. He is our leader on the floor,” Robertson said. “He had a couple of bad plays on the floor, but he bounced back and finished the game well. That is what we need on our basketball team.”
Meadow Bridge had two good looks go awry early in the fourth quarter which could have tied the game or given the Wildcats the lead.
“We talked about how the third quarter had been our bad quarter this year, but we actually played well. It still came down to if we could’ve made some easy shots, they don’t get that run,” Wickline said. “That has kinda been our story this year, but there nothing I can complain about. The kids played hard and we competed with a really good basketball team tonight and had an opportunity to be in the lead at points.”
With Meadow Bridge fighting to make a comeback, Perkins converted on two key stickbacks as well as a drive down the lane to keep the West lead at 10 points over the final three minutes of the game.
“Perkins battles so hard. He is not as big as Michael inside, but he will post up and score for us. He really battles for the rebound,” Robertson said. “He is a senior leader too and his effort really showed up tonight. The improvement he has made from his freshman year to now is unbelievable. It’s great to see him have a night like this in a rivalry game and step in at a big moment and make some plays.”
Robertson knew his team would have its hands full in the rematch Friday.
“This is a tough place to shoot the ball well. Our kids battled, but (Meadow Bridge) made shots. We played hard early, but when they caught up to us, we were kinda looking around wondering what are we going to do now,” Robertson said. “We are very inexperienced too. The last two games is the first time playing somebody that we had already beat. Other coaches do a great job of adjusting. They made some adjustments and did some good things against us.”
Greenbrier West has another tough road contest Saturday when it travels to No. 8 Tygarts Valley. Meadow Bridge is also on the road Saturday at East Hardy.
GW: 17 14 9 20 – 62
MB: 9 9 20 12 – 50
Greenbrier West 62
Brayden McClung 6, Chase McClung 27, Kadin Parker 8, Ty Nickell 2, Michael Kanode 7, Elijah Perkins 8, Dale Boone 4. Totals: 25 9-19 62.
Meadow Bridge 50
Rian Cooper 4, Conner Mullins 18, Jaden Gladwell 9, Seaton Mullins 11, Dustin Adkins 6, Dakota Hayes 2. Totals: 16 15-19 50.
3-pointers – GW: 3 (C. McClung 2, Parker 1) ; MB: 3 (C. Mullins 2, Gladwell)
