Gallery by Heather Belcher
Thursday night the boys basketball clash between Greenbrier West and Independence was a battle of two teams going in opposite directions.
Heading into the season, Indy head coach Mike Green was confident about the team he would put on the floor this year.
Greenbrier West head coach Jared Robinson was more reserved after his team was ravaged by graduation last year. Robertson felt that his young Cavaliers would be a work in progress at best.
What couldn’t be totally measured by either coach was the level of heart and desire inside their players.
Those levels were clearly obvious when the upstart Cavaliers out-worked, out-hustled and out-played the athletic Patriots for a 73-59 win.
The win kept Greenbrier West undefeated over its four game, while Independence is still looking for its first win in four tries.
“We are 4-for-4 on that type of effort and I told the guys, no offense, because we are getting better each game, but we are an average basketball team that has played harder than our opponent four times,” Robertson said. “If we want to keep working that hard and keep improving on the things we need to improve on, by March, who knows. It is one game at a time, but it has been fun coaching that kind of effort on the floor.”
The Cavaliers came to Coal City knowing it would be down a key starter and rim protector in Michael Kanode due to an injury.
They also knew that Indy had two athletic players in Cyrus Goodson and Michael McKinney that could attack the rim with a vengeance.
The athletic duo staked the Patriots to a quick 4-0 lead with back-to-back layups. However, if West was supposed to back down and be scared, no one told the Cavaliers.
Three straight steals led to a pair baskets from Brayden McClung and another from older brother Chase McClung.
Greenbrier West never trailed the remainder of the game.
“When the other team has athletes like (Independence) and they make a couple shots, we have no one like a Goodson or a McKinney that can drive and jump like that,” Robertson said. “Once they started missing a couple shots and we got the rebound and ran by them, we got easy shots. Once that happened a couple of times, our kids realized that while they are good, we are good too and we can go play.”
Two triples from Chase McClung added more gasoline to the Cavaliers’ fire for a 16-10 lead. Indy then answered with a 6-0 run that included a lob dunk from McKinney on an in-bound play.
Again, West was not phased by the athleticism.
Back-to-back buckets from Chase McClung, a 3-pointer from Ty Nickell and a score from Chris Davis gave the visitors a 25-16 lead midway through the second quarter.
However, just when West was starting to pull away, foul trouble reared its head and McClung had to sit until halftime.
“Chase is such an energetic guy and that got him in a little bit of foul trouble tonight. However, if you would have told me that Michael (Kanode) would be sitting over there and Chase would be in foul trouble and we would have the lead, I can’t ask for anymore than that,” Robertson said. “On the bench when we had a timeout, Chase was in their ears saying you need to this or that. It is great having that kinda kid on the floor for you.”
Independence would get as close as five points, but the Patriots could not match the energy and intensity of the Cavaliers. The home team also could not handle the emergence of Elijah Perkins.
After Dale Boone scored inside, Perkins powered his way inside and converted the 3-point play when he was fouled with 1:38 to play in the half.
“With Michael out, who is our rim protector, that really hurts us. But, I am going to give Elijah Perkins all the credit in the world,” Robertson said. “He stepped in and played great. You talking about a guy that once he scored once, he felt like they couldn’t guard him and he was going to go score on them.”
Perkins would score four more points in the quarter, one basket off an offensive rebound. Tanner Hagy followed with another stick-back just before the halftime horn.
“Tanner Hagy, Jacob Nutter and Chris Davis are probably three unknown names, but I trust all three of them because they play just as hard as the others,” Robertson said. “They are all capable and came in tonight and helped not only hold the lead, but extend the lead when they were in the game.”
In the last two minutes of the half, a five-point game went to 15 points at the break.
“It was just ugly basketball. We are five weeks in and everybody is making excuses for us. We are just not very good right now and I don’t know if we can get any better,” a frustrated Independence head coach Mike Green said after the game. “It is embarrassing to me personally, embarrassing for the community and for this school. We have guys out here trying to win individual awards in a team game. If they don’t change their mentality and their mindset to a team game, we won’t win a game this year.”
Greenbrier West would build the lead to 20 points before some sloppy play led to some easy baskets for the Patriots.
“We got it to 20 and then we had a two or three minute stretch where it turned into playground basketball. We can’t run with Goodson and McKinney,” Robertson said.
Indy cut the deficit to nine in the fourth quarter, but West answered each run and moved the lead back to double digits.
The statistic that best described the battle Thursday was offensive rebounds. Greenbrier West grabbed 20 on the night to control the paint.
“Just give credit to our kids, especially with a kid out, to come in here and play that well tonight. I am a little floored by our month really. Merry Christmas Cavalier country,” Robertson said. “I am going to let the kids enjoy the weekend and we will get back after it next week. We have three games after the first of the year and those are three teams that can beat us.”
Frustrated by the first month of the season, Green promised that changes would come for his team.
“I gave them off until Monday and I promise you when we come back for our next game on Jan. 3, we will have fire and intensity,” Green said. “We may not win, but we won’t get out-rebounded and out-hustled. We are going to instill a little bit of heart and passion. It is easy to see that we lack that and there is no excuse for that type of basketball.”
Greenbrier West hosts Summers County Jan. 4 before traveling to PikeView and Greenbrier East. Independence will play Richwood in the New River CTC Tournament Jan. 3.
GW: 16 25 17 17 – 73
I: 14 10 17 18 – 59
Greenbrier West 73
Brayden McClung 9, Tanner Hagy 2, Russell Bryant 2, Chase McClung 25, Kadin Parker 7, Matthew Thomas 1, Ty Nickell 4, Chris Davis 2, Elijah Perkins 14, Dale Boone 7.
Independence 59
Michael McKinney 20, Logan Phalin 8, Carter Adkins 12, Cyrus Goodson 14, Corey Shumate 5.
3-pointers – GW: 3 (B. McClung, C. McClung 2); I: 4 (McKinney 3, Adkins).
