Gallery by Karen Akers
Charleston – For three quarters the turnovers were there for Bluefield but the points off of them weren’t.
That changed in the final frame.
Bluefield used a furious fourth-quarter pressure blitz to generate nine points off turnovers, overcoming a 35 percent showing from the floor to earn a 56-47 victory against Wheeling Central Friday night in the Class AA state semifinals in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
With the win the top-seeded Beavers advance to the Class AA title game for the second time in three seasons. They’ll play the winner of Charleston Catholic-Ravenswood.
Trailing 39-36 with six minutes to play the Beavers embarked on an 8-0 run that gave them the lead for good. It started with a Kam’Ron Gore free throw and maxed out with a pair of steals that led to the sixth and final lead change of the game.
It was indicative of a fourth quarter where the Beavers scored the bulk of their 22 points that came off of turnovers.
“I’m very, very proud of these young men,” Bluefield coach Buster Large said. “Great student athletes and they hung in there. Our coaching staff made some great adjustments at halftime. It didn’t work quite in third quarter but then we went into two different types of presses and really we fronted a few people and that made a difference.”
The fourth-quarter charge yielded an 8 of 9 finish from the field for the Beavers, a contrast from the start.
Bluefield excelled at generating turnovers early, forcing Wheeling Central into 11 in the first half and 19 for the game but failed to cash them in, starting 2 of 10 from the field and missing 11 consecutive shots at one point across the first and second quarters. The struggles from the field never hurt them though as they went into the break tied at 20 despite shooting 6 of 28 (21.4 percent ) from the floor through 16 minutes.
Scoring picked up for both teams in the third quarter with the Maroon Knights finding holes on the back end of Bluefield’s pressures. Troy Anthony and Eli Dean were the beneficiaries for Central, nailing back to back 3s to offset a triple from Gore.
Dean’s broke a 32-32 tie and a jumper from Quinton Burlenski before the buzzer staked Central to a 37-34 after three quarters.
The lead held at three after a Max Olejasz layup just two minutes into the final frame. Then the castle crumbled around Maroon Knights.
It started when Gore split a pair of free throws to narrow the deficit to two. An E.J. Washington steal set up an acrobatic layup from Gore to knot the game. The roof blew off the Coliseum seven seconds later when Sencere Fields picked another pass and dropped to Hairston who rose for a two-handed jam, forcing a Central timeout.
“We just needed to score on defense,” Hairston said. “So we made the winning plays, you know, the 50-50 balls, we needed them. We came together as a team like we usually do so. And everybody’s gotta give us the edge.”
The timeout did little to stop the bleeding for Central as Glen Keene nailed his only three of the game out of it, extending the Beaver advantage to five.
The onslaught continued with Fields scoring on a layup and drilling a 3 to make it 49-43 with 3:02 to play.
Hairston put the finishing touches on the victory with his second two-handed jam with 52 seconds to go.
“The momentum switched quickly right there,” Bluefield head coach Buster Large said. “I mean, when R.J. got that dunk, and Glen Keene hit the 3 all I heard was a roar in our background. And believe me there wasn’t a sigh of relief because I knew we still had three or four minutes to go. And then they came right back down scored.”
The Beavers finished with 13 points off turnovers for the game but the nine in the final frame were the backbreakers.
“I mean for three quarters I thought we played pretty well,” Wheeling Central head coach Mel Stephens said. “I mean we rebounded the ball on the defensive end and were making them take tough shots. One of the keys we put on the board at the beginning was we had to be able to handle that pressure. And I thought for three quarters, mostly we did that.
“A little stretch in the fourth quarter, you know, where they turned us over a couple times and got out there in front. After that it was a little bit tough and we had to try to force a little bit more to try to get down the court and score. And it just makes it tough. I mean, they’re good. We knew they were good, but I thought we were right there with them for three quarters. We kind of let the game get away a little bit in the fourth.”
The 0 for 11 stretch produced by Bluefield’s offense netted little for the Maroon Knights who scored just 10 points over that 7:29.
“I thought defensively we did well,” Stephens said. “We forced them to shoot tough ones and that was our best defensive rebounding game of the year. But their pressure and just their aggressiveness on the defensive end made it tough for us to get into anything to get good shots. I thought for three quarters we got enough shots and we made enough shots to stay there but their pressure just is relentless and once they start turning you over that adrenaline starts pumping for them and it just starts to snowball a little bit.”
Hairston and Gore led the charge for the Beavers scoring 19 and 20 points, respectively, adding 10 rebounds each.
Eli Sancomb led Wheeling Central with 13 points in the loss.
