The last time Greenbrier East earned a trip to the Girls State Basketball Tournament, the Lady Spartans were not afforded the opportunity to compete inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The year was 2020 and Greenbrier East appeared to be on a fast track for a Friday night showdown with its bitter rival on the biggest stage.
“It was just plain awful. We were playing Martinsburg and we had beat Martinsburg in the regular season by 25,” Greenbrier East head coach and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said. “We were automatically going to the semifinals and we were going to play Woodrow (Wilson) in the semifinals which would have been a fabulous game.”
With his team scheduled to play its first game of the tournament that evening, the state tournament was shutdown for precautionary reasons due to Corona virus concerns.
“At the end of the day, we had a real shot, but there I am. I am the governor first and foremost,” Justice said. “Now you have these big conference tournaments and they are folding right in front of us right on TV. One, then 10 minutes later, another one. You have to do something. First and foremost you have to protect our people.”
Now the Lady Spartans are once again back in Charleston four years later looking for its first state title since 2012.
Greenbrier East knocked off Woodrow Wilson and Princeton in sectional play before backing up those wins with a regional co-final victory over Riverside. The win over the Lady Warriors secured a spot in the big dance.
The Lady Spartans received the No. 5 seed in the state tournament and will play No. 4 seed Morgantown Tuesday morning at 11:15 a.m. The Lady Mohigans are the Class AAAA defending state champions.
“I felt like we had a shot at the four-seed, but we also had a shot at the six or seven-seed,” Justice said. “I didn’t think we would end up seven or eight. Five is good.”
Starting the 2023-24 season with a very young roster, a trip to the state tournament seemed far from reality for the Lady Spartans.
“This team is super young and it has been really, really hard,” Justice said. “We win our first three games, then lose our next three games. From that point on we have won a lot, a lot of basketball games and a lot of tough games.”
Coming off a loss to Princeton in mid-December, it all began to click for Greenbrier East who ran off 10 straight victories.
“For the most part we have one junior on the floor and all of the rest are sophomores and freshman. We couldn’t have possibly gotten it all in that quick in the season,” Justice said. “We just kept getting more in and they kept getting better and better and better. They are a great bunch. They have bought in and it’s a lot of fun.”
Included in the streak that turned the season around was a lopsided win over the top team in Class AA, Wyoming East.
“The (three) games prior to Wyoming East were the turning point. We were 3-3 and we come back and win and win (and win again). I can’t recall who we even played. Now we are (6-3) playing Wyoming East,” Justice said. “We had a nice game plan on what to do with Wyoming East and we really messed them up. You will never do that with Wyoming East again, but we really messed them up on the game plan of what to do. At the end of the day, when I (saw) they could do that, the sky is the limit.”
The elevated play by the Spartans has been evident on both ends of the floor.
Kennedy Stewart leads a balanced scoring attack with 17 points per game followed by Ava Workman averaging 12.5 points per contest.
Adding more firepower for East is Jada Waller at nine points per game. Mackenna McClure and Hannah Fuller both average eight points and seven rebounds.
Defensively Greenbrier East has forced an average of 20 turnovers per game along with 12 steals. Stewart, Workman and Waller combine to average eight steal per game.
Over the last 19 games, the contest against Logan at the Battle for the Springhouse remains the only blemish on the Spartan schedule.
Morgantown enters the state tournament sporting a 16-8 record. Three losses have come to Wheeling Park along with setbacks to George Washington and Spring Valley.
George Washington, Park and Spring Valley are the top three AAAA seeds respectively in the tournament this year.
“Morgantown has been super, super competitive. For a big part of the season they were No. 1,” Justice said. “They are going to play a rough brand of ball and push us around and all. We are not all that strong. It will be really tough, but that is how it is supposed to be.”
The winner between Greenbrier East and Morgantown will match up with the winner of George Washington and Musselman at 1 p.m. Friday in the semifinal round.
The AAAA championship game is scheduled 12:20 p.m. Saturday.
