Gallery by Heather Belcher
Charleston – There were no thunderstorms in the vicinity of Charleston Tuesday night.
That did not prevent Beckley from experiencing an unfortunate power outage inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Failing to convert on a single shot attempt in the first quarter, the Class AAAA No. 8-seeded Flying Eagles fell to No. 1 seed Spring Mills.
The Cardinals advance to the semifinals where they will meet No. 5 South Charleston at 1 p.m. Friday.
“These guys are pretty darn good. It makes my job easy and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Spring Mills head coach Luke Samples said. “These guys put in so much work. This is the most deserving thing that I have ever been a part of in my life. It is a credit to these guys.”
Making its first trip to the boys state tournament since 2021, the first nine minutes of the game could not have gone much worse for Beckley.
Missing their first 10 shots of the night, the Flying Eagles dug a 15-1 hole after one quarter and never recovered.
“I take the blame for that first quarter and letting us get behind too far. I should have used about three timeouts,” Beckley head coach Ron Kidd.
Spring Mills came to Charleston on a historic run having won its first ever sectional and regional games in school history this year.
While it was also the first-ever trip to the state tournament for the Cardinals, they did not seem affected by the surroundings that have hampered so many teams in the past.
“These are guys that are built different. They are not like normal kids,” Samples said. “We go all over the country and all over the state. These guys play high level travel basketball and play in big arenas. These guys are not scared of the moment. Whatever happens, these kids are historical for our school. We are not going anywhere.”
The deficit went to 17-1 before Elijah Redfern drilled a 3-ball for Beckley’s first bucket of the night at the 6:54 mark of the second quarter.
The Flying Eagles only made three more field goals in the quarter, but Spring Mills failed to take full advantage of the Beckley dry spell only holding a 23-12 lead at the break.
Three times in the first four minutes of the second half, Beckley moved within 10 points, but could never get back within single digits the rest of the way.
Six straight points from Caleb Thomas late in the quarter pushed the lead to 16 points before Redfern scored on a layup to beat the buzzer.
The senior all-stater was Beckley’s lone bright spot all night scoring 22 points.
“Elijah Redfern, we could not stop. He scored more points on us than any team we have played all year,” Samples said. Give him some credit. He got his, but no one else was in double figures. If you only have one guy scoring, it is hard to beat someone. We made him work, but he is really good and he kept them in the game.”
“I was just trying to make something happen,” Redfern said. “Whether it was me getting to the rack for a layup or if the defense was coming in on me, kicking it to an open player and make something happen.”
A triple to open the fourth quarter by Preston Clary pulled Beckley within 11 points, but when Tyler Jones drilled his second long ball of the period the lead was 17 points with five minutes to play.
“It is just my guys finding me and me hitting open shots,” Jones said. “We trust the offense we run. I go to my spots and my guys get me the ball.”
While Spring Mills had no answers for Redfern, Beckley, likewise struggled with Thomas who scored 20 points, along with 15 rebounds, six assists and three blocks.
“What I liked about him is it was all smooth,” Kidd said. “He didn’t rush anything. He took his time and let the game come to him. He is a great player and he played with his team.”
Knowing it faced a huge task on the boards, Beckley was on the wrong end of a 36-18 rebounding margin.
“We built that habit at West Liberty team camp (back in the summer). We are sending four (players) and dropping one, so good luck trying to stop it,” Samples said. “We do it every day. Every single day, we do it. Even in walk-through, they better crash hard. It becomes a habit. Defensive rebounding it why we are here.”
“We talked about that all week and talked about it halftime,” Kidd said about rebounding. “I feel like rebounding is a fist fight. You have to go in there and scrap. It’s like war and they won the war right there in a sense. We didn’t battle the way we should have.”
Now facing a South Charleston team that handled Jefferson with relative ease earlier in the day, the Cardinals plan no let up Friday.
“We are still the underdog. We play with a chip. I read things I probably shouldn’t read. No. 1 is going to get upset. These people haven’t seen us play,” Samples said. “They don’t feel pressure. I do, but with these guys it takes all of the pressure away. We have perfect preparation and they trust their craft. We have a bunch of kids that were never ever supposed to be the superstar and they don’t want to be the superstar. They want to win games and be a superstar team.”
