Gallery by Heather Belcher
Fairlea – The last few years, Woodrow Wilson has frustrated Greenbrier East in the postseason.
Friday night, the Spartans returned the favor to their longtime rivals in the Class AAAA Region 3, Section 2 championship game inside Spartan Gymnasium.
Using opportunistic play on the offensive glass and a strong defensive effort, Greenbrier East brought home the elusive sectional crown, 49-34.
“They played better than we did. That’s the bottom line,” Woodrow Wilson head coach Brian Nabors said. “They hit shots and we didn’t. We got 54 attempts and they got 50. You have to knock down shots and stop people. We didn’t do that. We didn’t play good defense. We gave them too many second and third opportunities. No. 33 (Layla Pence) just killed us on the boards. It just wasn’t our night.”
The main focus defensively for the Spartans was to slow down Woodrow Wilson’s outstanding freshman guard Abby Dillon, who was coming off a 20-point effort Wednesday against Princeton.
“Their point guard is a really nice player. I feel like a lot of times if you can take the head off, at the end of the day, it makes it really hard on them to get in a rhythm,” Greenbrier East head coach and current West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said. “We played her box (and-1) the whole way. She still scored a few points on us, but that really made it tough on the other ones. If you only score 34 points on us, surely to goodness we can win.”
Greenbrier East took the early lead on a 3-pointer from Brooke Davis.
Woodrow Wilson answered with a driving score from Lataja Creasey and a long ball from Dillon for its only lead of the night.
Taking control on the offensive glass, Greenbrier East converted three consecutive extra chances into eight points to lead 13-7 after one quarter.
With the visitors struggling to score, the Spartans continued to control the glass to build a 10-point lead with just over three minutes left in the first half.
Two big 3-pointers from Creasey and a bucket from Olivia Ziolkowski sparked an 8-2 run to close the half, pulling the Flying Eagles within four points at the break.
“We were up 10 and we gave up a run right there and we go in the dressing room only up four,” Justice said. “That is not satisfactory to me. I told them over and over, everything depends on the first two minutes of this (next) half.”
A free throw by Adriana Law trimmed the lead to three before more problems on the glass haunted Woodrow.
After a free throw from Davis restored the halftime margin, Allie Dunford drilled a 3-ball off an offensive rebound for a 25-18 lead.
The lead went to 10 on a driving score from Cadence Stewart before scores by Ziolkowski and a 3-ball from Dillon quickly cut the advantage back to five.
“These kids wanted to win, but you have to give Woodrow a lot of credit,” Justice said. “Honestly, I thought we were going to run over them, but they dictated the game and controlled the pace early. We got the 10-point lead and they didn’t fold.”
With Woodrow finally riding some momentum, East completely changed the game in the final two minutes.
Dunford brought an eruption from the home crowd with a crucial 3-ball before Stewart applied the eventual dagger for the Spartans. The all-state junior converted a steal into a layup with 1.9 seconds on the third quarter clock and was fouled. Stewart’s ensuing free-throw gave East a 38-27 lead.
“It’s always huge when you can do that to end the quarter or the half. It gave them a lot of momentum,” Nabors said.
Woodrow Wilson could only get as close as 10 points the rest of the way.
Stewart led all scorers with 19 points, while Davis and Dunford scored 11 points apiece. Dunford also had nine rebounds. Pence grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds for the Spartans, 10 coming off the offensive glass.
Dillon had 12 for Woodrow and Creasey added nine. Ziolkowski scored seven and pulled down 16 rebounds.
Both teams are still alive in regional play which takes place Wednesday. Greenbrier East will host George Washington in one Region 3 co-final, while Woodrow Wilson will travel to Capital in the other regional co-final.
The winners of Wednesday’s games advance to the state tournament in Charleston, March 8-12.
WW: 7 10 10 7 – 34
GE: 13 8 17 11 – 49
Woodrow Wilson
Lataja Creasey 9, Olivia Ziolkowski 7, Abby Dillon 12, Adriana Law 6. Totals: 12 6-12 34.
Greenbrier East
Allie Dunford 11, Cadence Stewart 19, Brooke Davis 11, Daisha Summers 6, Layla Pence 2. Totals: 16 10-18 49.
3-pointers – WW: 4 (Dillon 2, Creasey 2); GE: 7 (Dunford 3, Stewart 2, Davis 2).
