Prior to the 2022-23 girls basketball season, Greenbrier West had been agonizingly close to playing in the state tournament.
The last time the Lady Cavaliers were inside what is now known as the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, it was 1987 and girls basketball was a fall sport in West Virginia.
This past Thursday night in front of a packed house inside John C. Estep Gymnasium the state tournament drought finally came to an end with a 61-52 Region 3 co-final win over River View.
The No. 4 seeded Cavaliers will now play No. 5 seed Webster County at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday morning in the quarterfinals of the Class A state girls basketball tournament.
“I feel just like every game that we have had out of the last four, it will be a dogfight,” Greenbrier West head coach Mark Agee said, now in his fifth year in Charmco.
Prior to the season Agee made this comment about his girls, “In the first five days of practice this year, we have had better practices than those in the last three years. I am excited about the season. They have a good bond.”
Agee reiterated that fact all season while his girls ran up an 18-5 record with three of those losses coming to the top two teams in Class AA.
After the comeback win over River View, which followed an 11-point fourth quarter comeback against Webster County in the sectional championship game, Agee again talked about team chemistry.
“This is the best season that I have had in the five seasons that I have been here,” Agee said Thursday. “They played as a team and they have the best chemistry of any team that I have coached in the last 15 years.”
The comeback wins have been the best example of the team bond Agee saw early in the season. Instead of sniping and complaining to each other in the tough times, the Cavaliers instead turned to encouragement and belief in one another.
“I think that we believe in each other more than any team that I have ever played on,” senior Meagan Poticher said after the regional championship game. “Our strength is with each other. No matter how far we get down, we know that we can fight back and we trust each other.”
Balance has also been the key to success for Greenbrier West.
Preslee Treadway leads the team scoring 15 points per game, while Maddie Fields scores just under 10 points per game and Ava Barclay averages nine points a night.
“As you can see, we don’t have just one outstanding person and everybody plays as a team,” Agee said.
Abigail Thomas, who has come up big in key moments to spark the Cavaliers, especially in the postseason, averages seven points per game and Poticher scores six points. Thomas and Poticher have also been strong rebounders for the Cavaliers.
A nice surprise for Greenbrier West this season has been the play of freshman Brilee Redden who chips in six points per game and is a solid threat from the 3-point line.
The 1987 team finished 20-5, dropping the championship game to Doddridge County.
If the current version of the Lady Cavaliers want to make it to the championship game, they must first beat Webster County for the third time this season.
Apply the required postseason cliche’ here – it is extremely tough to beat a quality team three times in the same season.
“These girls want to go out here and play. They feel like they are going to win it and I feel like we are going to win it,” Agee said. “If we go out there and play as a team like we have all year, make some shots and play good defense, we can come out on top.”
The first two games were thrillers to say the least, but both games were played in Charmco.
In the regular season matchup, Greenbrier West rallied from a double digit third quarter deficit. The Cavaliers outscored the Highlanders 24-10 in the final quarter for a 68-62 win.
Treadway scored 29 on that night, eleven in the fourth period, while Fields had 14 and Redden scored 11 points.
Round two between the schools was for the sectional title and ended eerily similar for Webster fans.
The Highlanders once again saw a double-digit lead disappear in a 47-46 loss. Webster County led by 11 points with six minutes to play.
The visitors vowed not to let Treadway burn them again that night, but Fields stepped up with 19 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer with 14 seconds to play.
Treadway did score nine and Barclay added 10 with two crucial buckets in the wild comeback.
“We did that last time and came back from 12 or 14 points down in the third quarter,” Barclay said after the sectional win. “I knew we could pull it out if we tried hard.”
Oh, and the team unity and tight bond was mentioned frequently after the win as well.
“When we got down I was just thinking that we couldn’t give up and we had to keep working as a team to pull ourselves back up,” Fields said that night.”
Greenbrier West will again need a big effort to control all-stater Sydney Baird and the Highlanders.
From the Webster County perspective, the sectional battle was a game it felt like it should have won.
Baird was 11-of-13 from the line, but her teammates struggled mightily making just one of their 13 attempts.
Add in numerous missed looks in close and it is easy to see why the Highlanders were frustrated after the one-point setback.
“We know that Baird will be their big scorer, but we know they have some other players that can score as well. We will still play our game,” Agee said. “We will key on Baird, but I don’t think you can stop her. We do hope to control her and control the pace of the game. If we can do that we will be alright.”
The showdown Tuesday will have all of those factors in the back of both team’s minds, but the overall deciding factor will likely be which team can adjust to the vast Charleston Coliseum.
That advantage goes to Webster County.
“I feel like they have an advantage being there before and knowing what the crowd is like and how to shoot on the baskets,” Agee said.
Although the Highlanders are young, Baird, now a senior, is very familiar with the surroundings at the state basketball tournament. Baird scored 35 in the first game against West and had 27 in the sectional championship.
The West Virginia Wesleyan commit is also coming of a 36-point performance in the regional win over James Monroe where she poured in 23 in the final eight minutes.
Agee feels like his team will be ready after battling through two tough sectional games. However, he also ended by hearkening back to his words prior the beginning of the season.
“We have had adversity several times throughout the year. They have been down a number of times and pushed through that to come back. There is a lot to say for their maturity over the last year and our senior leadership,” Agee said. “You also can’t beat good team chemistry. Even if you have 10 average players, with good team chemistry and kids that work together, it’s a big deal.”
The winner Tuesday between Greenbrier West and Webster County will advance to the semifinal round where it will meet winner of No. 1 seed, and defending Class A state champion, Cameron and No. 8 Pendleton County. The semifinal game will tip Friday at 1 p.m.
