Photos by Karen Akers
Charleston – Following the first of two Class AAA semifinal games at the boys state basketball tournament, Shady Spring head coach Ronnie Olson said some people might be tired of seeing Shady Spring in the championship game.
Olson went on to say, his No. 2-seeded Tigers are by no means tired of playing in the most coveted game of the season.
That was clearly obvious Thurday afternoon.
For the fourth straight season, Shady Spring earned a spot in the Class AAA title game with a convincing, 67-44 win over No. 3 seed Nitro in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The Tigers now await the winner of the other semifinal game featuring No. 1 Fairmont Senior and No. 4 East Fairmont.
“It is truly unbelievable to be back in this position again. We never take anything for granted,” Olson said. “I know everybody thought we would be good, but they didn’t think we would be back in this position until the middle of the year. The (players) bought in and I am so proud of them. With the effort and hard work that they put in, there is a reason why we are here four years in a row.”
The Wildcats entered the contest at 24-2, but still believed they had something to prove. Taking down the Tigers would be a statement win for their program.
After one quarter of play, Nitro was very much in the ballgame, only down four points.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, it was just an illusion.
“We lose our point guard in the first few minutes. We have two guys with three fouls and one guy had three in the first quarter,” Nitro head coach Austin Lowe said. “We had some lineups out there that typically don’t get to run together. It was the perfect storm.”
Shady Spring had its own problems early with all-stater Ammar Maxwell limited by two fouls. The Tigers however, had seen that scene play out throughout the season and responded like veterans.
“They have have some players. Our game plan was to make somebody else beat us and they had those guys,” Lowe said. “If you look at the stat sheet they were 15, 17, 15 and 12 (points). Ammar got going in the second half. We didn’t have anybody that could stay in front of him. They are in four state championships for a reason.”
The two teams traded 3-balls to open the second quarter before Shady Spring ran off nine points in a row for a 32-19 lead which was 11 by halftime.
With Maxwell limited with foul trouble, Jack Williams took the lead and disrupted the entire game plan of the Wildcats.
“We had to step out and guard those guys. We gambled a little bit,” Lowe said. “We thought we could zone them, then Jack Williams came out and hit four of five in the first half from three. They are a matchup nightmare for us. We play two bigs traditionally most of the time. Their quickness and athleticism gave us fits.”
At the break, the junior sensation had 13 points, four assists and two steals.
“We have (other) players that can play too,” Olson said. “A lot of times it’s Ammar that is going to step up 80 percent of the time. But, we have other guys around (Ammar) that can play. Everybody waits for their time to step up.”
Coming off a quarterfinal game where Williams only scored two points, Olson knew Thursday would be different.
“I 100 percent knew. He is a sniper. I knew with him only scoring two points in our last game, he was going to get going,” Olson said. “He is one of the best players in West Virginia. We had a shoot-around yesterday and Jackie was stroking it. Call it coaches intuition, but I knew he was going to have a big game today.”
Williams knew the first half was crucial period for the Tigers.
“It’s just carrying the load really, especially with Ammar getting two fouls early. Other people have to step up. I told Ammar I covered him in the first half, he had to cover me in the second half,” Williams said. “Ammar scored all his points in the second half and I scored mine in the first. It’s just kind of next man up. If we don’t score those points, we are down however many points. You can’t get down in a state tournament game.”
Williams also had plenty of help building the halftime lead. Gavin Davis had eight at the break, while Jalon Bailey and Khi Olson added seven points each.
Nitro made the game interesting early in the third quarter.
Starter Timmy Lovejoy, who had played just three minutes in the first half resulting from three fouls, came out hot in the second half.
A pair of 3-pointers and a score in the paint by Lovejoy pulled the Wildcats within five points with 5:55 to play in the quarter.
The stage was set for Maxwell who stepped in and baffled the Wildcats with dribble penetration and shots at the rim.
The senior muscled his way in for a score before cashing in on another drive just over a minute later. A steal from Maxwell ended with a spin move for a layup on the other end to push the lead back to 10 points.
When Maxwell scored on a drive with 12 seconds left in the quarter, Shady Spring led 54-41 after three quarters.
Khi Olson opened the fourth period with a 3-pointer for a 16-point edge and it was all downhill from there for Nitro.
Lowe talked about losing his point guard, Derek Lowe in the first quarter in regards to the struggles the remainder of the game.
“That changes things because he leads us 90 percent of the time. He gets us calmed down. He gets us settled down,” coach Lowe said. “If he is in there in the third quarter, I am not sure it gets away from us. That is the kind of impact he has. He keeps us grounded.”
Over the final eight minutes of the quarter, the Wildcats only managed to score three points, all on free throws.
“No field goals and three points is phenomenal. Those guys were so buckled down and it felt like they were one unit,” Olson said. “We put that on the board, play as a unit and they did. We had them going east and west. These guys are special. They put on a performance on both sides of the floor (today).
Also on the board in the locker room was a reminder about rebounding.
“What did I put on the board (before the game)? We have offense. We have defense. We have keys. Every other line is team rebound,” Olson said. “I was reading it off and they were tired of saying team rebound. We knew they are a phenomenal rebounding team. We felt like the only way they would beat us was on the glass. They kept themselves in the game in the first half because of rebounding. They are a big team.”
After dominating Sissonville on the glass in the quarterfinal win, the Wildcats could not duplicate that against the Tigers. Shady held a 26-15 edge on the boards and outscored Nitro 30-18 in the paint.
“They got us on the glass. They crashed it. When we are not doing a whole lot in the paint, we are in trouble,” Lowe said. “Their guards rebounded. We felt like we had to set two guys back to stop their transition. They have big guards. They are physical and fast.”
“They are the 3-seed for a reason. They are really good, well coached and they run good stuff,” Olson said. “We made them feel uncomfortable. We just got after them on the glass.”
The other notable stat of the game was offensive efficiency by the Tigers. Shady made 24 of its 38 field goal attempts (63 percent) with 20 assists on the 24 made baskets.
“We are sitting here talking about defense, maybe I should apologize to my offense since we shot such a high percentage. You control what you can control, that is why we bought in on the defensive end,” Olson said. “When we shoot like that, it is very hard to come back. They gave us some things and the guys moved it. A lot of those shots were open. Open shots from guys passing to other guys. We knew what they were going to do. They were going to play that 3-2 zone. We took what they gave us and knocked some wide open shots down.”
The Class AAA state title game will start at 10 a.m. Saturday.
