A strange thing happened on the way to the much anticipated battle between Shady Spring and Woodrow Wilson in Wednesday’s championship game of the Burger King Division at the Little General Battle for the Armory.
Class A St. Joe wanted to crash the party.
Making the most of a last minute invite to the tournament, the Irish stood toe-to-toe with the Flying Eagles and came away with a stunning, 73-72 win.
“Believe it or not, we came into this game thinking we could win. It wasn’t a David and Goliath thing. We know what we can do and we have had great practices,” St. Joe head coach Todd Maynard said. “My challenge to the guys was, win a quarter, win a game. I felt like if we kept it close towards the end, then they would get rattled and fall apart. It’s a huge win and one that I don’t think anybody thought we could pull off.”
Prior to Monday night, Woodrow Wilson was slated to play Charleston Catholic in the opening round of the tournament. A Covid issue forced Catholic to drop out and opened the door for St. Joseph.
“I got the call (Monday) night. We don’t have a lot of depth on this team and we battled foul trouble all the way through,” Maynard said. “I would rather play in games like this than play a weaker team and feel good because we won. Even if we had lost this game, we would have grown from it. I am happy for our guys and it is really nice to get a win here.”
Woodrow Wilson threw the first haymaker in the first quarter knocking down five 3-pointers. Although they were red-hot, Woodrow could not shake the Irish.
Even more unsettling for the Flying Eagles was the fact that they could not seem to keep Irish guards Jesse Muncy and Zavian Johnson out of the lane.
“Our philosophy is hunt the paint. We believe in hunting the paint, engaging two defenders and getting kick outs. We are not going to throw it around and shoot 3’s. We want to shoot high percentage 3’s,” Maynard said. “We have a group that can get to the rim pretty well. Jesse Muncy and Zavian Johnson is one of the best backcourts in the state.”
Trailing by three after one quarter, the Irish held Woodrow to just five points in the second quarter and took a 28-26 lead into the locker room.
A bucket from Mike Miller and a free-throw from Maddex McMillen gave Woodrow the advantage to open the second half before the lead would see-saw back and forth for the next six minutes.
The 10th lead change of the quarter gave the Flying Eagles a 44-42 lead with just over a minute to play in the period. However, when Muncy wasn’t killing Woodrow with penetration, he was dropping in deep 3’s to put his team ahead.
With 42 seconds left in the quarter, the 11th lead change of the quarter came on a Muncy 3-ball for a 45-44 lead.
“Muncy came from Tolsia and had well over 1,500 points in three years. He is smaller, but he is a scorer that is crafty and gets us going,” Maynard said. “He is a country boy that is undersized and has always felt like has been underrated at times. He dropped 35 as a freshman on Huntington and we beat them last year.”
McMillen and Johnson traded buckets to open the fourth quarter. When Johnson rained in a deep bomb from NBA range, the Irish led by four, but McMillen responded to bring his team back.
Sparked by five points from the senior standout, Woodrow ran off eight straight for as 56-52 lead, only to see Muncy strike again. A bucket at the rim and a pull-up 3 in transition flipped the lead for the 13th time in the second half.
“He has no conscious, but he has developed into a player that shoots high percentage shots and creates for others,” Maynard said about Muncy. “He isn’t just out there gunning. If he is coming down hill and your giving him space, he will shoot a very high percentage.”
Baskets from Keynan Cook and Elijah Redfern made it a three-point lead for Woodrow before Johnson’s strike from behind the line tied it with 3:42 to play.
Woodrow’s last lead came on a 3 from Brayden Hawthorne on the next possession, but the home team had no answers for Muncy down the stretch.
“We couldn’t stop them off the dribble. They kinda did anything they wanted to as far as driving to the basket,” Woodrow Wilson head coach Ron Kidd said. “We didn’t have anyone that could guard anybody. It’s nothing but a pride thing.”
Five consecutive points from Jaden Price created the 15th and final lead change of the game. The Flying Eagles would tie the game three times down the stretch and had a chance for a game-winner, but couldn’t convert.
“We weren’t coming up to have a good time and eat some pizza,” Maynard said. “We were here to win the thing. Our motto this year is togetherness and this was a big team win.”
The Irish will now play Shady Spring Wednesday night at 8 p.m in the championship game while Woodrow Wilson will have another tough battle in the consolation game against Cabell Midland at 6 p.m.
SJ: 18 10 17 28 – 73
WW: 21 5 18 28 – 72
St. Joe 73
Caden Ehirimj 16, Jaden Price 8, Zavian Johnson 20, Jesse Muncy 22, Phillip Ignatiadis 6, Jax Fortner 1. Totals: 25-52 17-23 73.
Woodrow Wilson 72
Keynan Cook 4, Maddex McMillen 27, Elijah Redfern 17, Sam Peck 10, Mike Miller 2, Brayden Hawthorne 7, Caleb Gravely 4, Jaylon Walton 1. Totals: 27-58 8-16 72.
3-pointers – SJ: 6 (Ehirim, Johnson 2, Muncy 3); WW: 10 (McMillen 5, Redfern, Peck 2, Hawthorne 2).
