Gallery by Heather Belcher
Charleston – The sea of black shirts in the Scott cheering section were adorned with the phrase “Unfinished Business” on the back Friday evening in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Assuming the business was to win a state championship, the Skyhawks will have to wait another year.
On cue, the Tigers’ aggressive defense frustrated Scott all evening, holding it to 26 percent shooting from the floor in a 63-35 win in the Class AAA semifinals.
With the win Shady Spring, the 2021 state champion, advances to its third consecutive Class AAA title game where it will face the winner of Fairmont Senior-Elkins on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Just how dominant was Shady’s defense? The Tigers went on a second-quarter drought where they missed 12 consecutive shots. They led 24-6 when the spell began and 28-11 when Braden Chapman found the bottom of the net on a layup five minutes later.
They took a 30-11 lead into the intermission, holding Scott to 18.2 percent shooting (4 of 22) from the field in the first 16 minutes of the game.
“Hats off to Shady,” Scott head coach Shawn Ballard said. “They really got after it and they really played well today. They were more physical than us and just their pressure gave us fits and kept us from getting into what we wanted to get into offensively. On the defensive end we were contesting shots and making them miss, but man, their physicality, they were just pushing us underneath the rim and getting offensive rebounds. I think they had more offensive rebounds in the first half than we had total in the game.”
The Tigers started fast on offense, taking a 4-1 lead after an Ammar Maxwell layup and a pair of Jaedan Holstein free throws. And then the avalanche hit.
Cam Manns nailed back-to-back 3s and Braden Chapman added a layup, setting the Tigers up with a 12-1 advantage, forcing a Scott timeout.
During the spurt Chapman played on-ball, frustrating Scott guard Isaac Setser and slowing the Skyhawk offense.
“Braden, we feel is our best defender,” Shady head coach Ronnie Olson said. “These guys know their strengths and they know their weaknesses. We thought (Setser) was what made them go. People can say Reece (Carden), he’s a very good player but I thought Setser is what makes them go. We thought that their offense runs through him. We thought if we could pressure him … we thought he was the head of the snake. We thought we could take him off the 3-point line and move the offense up to the volleyball line and we knew that that’s where their offense started at and they struggled with it.”
The early timeout helped Scott gain some footing with Jayden Sharps connecting on a 3 but a pair of layups from brothers Braden and Cole Chapman offset the trey. Maxwell capped off the first-quarter flurry with three consecutive layups, staking Shady to a 22-6 lead after a quarter.
Over the next two quarters the Tigers cooled off, mustering just 22 points in that span but their defense never allowed Scott to threaten as they carried a 30-11 advantage into the intermission.
“If it’s a four-point game we probably still have the lead right there,” Olson said. “Instead it’s (18) and we have a (19) point lead going into the half. I’m fine with that, they’re fine with that. If we don’t score, as long as we’re getting stops we’re going to win the game. Part of our strategy is keep shooting the ball and let’s go get it because as hard as they work on offense – they live and they breathe defense in practice. They get tired of doing it but they came out here and lived it and breathed it for two games.”
The Shady defense was stout enough to hold Carden, an all-stater, scoreless through three quarters. His first points didn’t come until the 6:43 mark of the fourth quarter. Maxwell drew the assignment as Carden’s primary defender.
“I know he’s a very good player but I just have to go out there and do what I can for my team,” Maxwell said. “Just play defense and do everything I can.”
“Ammar did a good job of staying stationary and down,” Olson added. “He didn’t reach. He kept him in front of him. Reece is a good shooter and has a lot of wiggle and Ammar really did a good job staying grounded on him and in his stance.”
Holstein, unprompted, heaped praise upon Maxwell’s performance as well.
“I just want to give credit to Ammar because last year he was not one of our best defenders,” Holstein smiled. “He’s put in the work and he deserves some credit so I just want to give that to him. He’s probably one of our best, if not our best – no hate to Braden.”
The 35 points scored by Scott tied the record for fewest in a Class AAA game, marking the third defensive record this group of Shady juniors and seniors have broken or tied in their careers with most steals (24 in 2022) and most turnovers against (30 in 2022) completing the list.
“Tomorrow I’d like to reflect on that,” Olson said. “But just getting the win 41-40 would’ve been good with me. But that’ll be a good thing to talk about we win the state championship.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
