Gallery by Heather Belcher
White Sulphur Springs – There will be no repeat champion on the girls side of the bracket at the Battle for the Springhouse.
After capturing the inaugural crown last year, Class AAAA Greenbrier East fell to Class AA No. 2 Mingo Central inside Colonial Hall at The Greenbrier Friday night.
Leading from start to finish and surviving a wild flurry from the Spartans in the final quarter, the Miners held on for an intense 53-44 win in front of a packed house.
“It is a great win for our kids as we continue to instill the confidence in them. When they get these wins, they can see it. We want to keep getting better,” Mingo Central head coach Kim Davis-Smith said. “We had moments tonight that we let the game get away and we didn’t take care of the ball. We were able to recover from that though. It’s great to come here and win against a great team that is very physical.”
Mingo Central took the initial 2-0 lead and after two ties, the Miners started to slowly pull away. When Addy Smith beat the buzzer with a 3-ball at the end of the first period, Mingo led 16-9.
Greenbrier East pulled within two points early in the second period, but the visitors closed the half on a 12-5 run for a 30-21 lead at the break.
With Smith, the Miners leading scorer, being harassed all over the floor by the Spartans defense, Mingo received key contributions from Delaney Grimmett, as well as post threats, Jenna Sparks and Cara Curry.
Three minutes into the third quarter, the threesome helped give the Miners a 36-23 lead which stood at 11 points heading into the final stanza.
“We do have some size and we were able to capitalize on that for sure. At that point in time, that was huge for our team and it worked,” Davis-Smith said.
With some of the Mingo Central faithful letting regional rival Wyoming East know that the Miners were coming for them in Saturday’s championship tilt, the home team said not so fast.
A personal 10-1 run by Caroline Dotson over a three minute span completely changed the complexion of the game and pulled East within two points with 4:10 to play.
“What a nice game that Caroline had. She played really hard and kept us in the game,” Greenbrier East head coach and current W.Va. Governor Jim Justice said. “Kennedy (Stewart) and Cadence (Stewart) were running for their lives and Caroline really stepped up.”
The plan coming in for the Miners was to neutralize the sharpshooting sister duo from Greenbrier East.
“The Stewart sisters are really great players. That is our first time trying that special defense there because we felt like they were that important to their team,” Davis-Smith said.”We face that a lot as well. We felt like our best shot at winning tonight was to limit both of their shots and it was effective.”
Greenbrier East had a few good chances to tie or take the lead, but the ball would not fall through the hoop for the Spartans.
Back-to-back scores from Sparks pushed the lead to six points before Smith sealed the deal down the stretch from the foul line.
“We talk about putting four quarters together and we are getting better at that. It was a time in the game that we needed to settle down, let the moment be what it was and run our offense,” Davis-Smith said. “We just didn’t do it at times and it resulted in run-outs and other opportunities for them to score without our defense being set. We did weather the storm though. Hopefully that gives us some maturity, and confidence in themselves in those moments going forward.”
Smith led all scorers with 18 points, while Sparks finished with 14 and 10 rebounds. Curry scored 11 to go along with seven boards. Grimmett added eight. Dotson led the Spartans with 16 points and eight rebounds. The Stewart sisters scored nine points apiece.
“Anytime that we get a triangle-and-two or a diamond-and-one (defense), it makes life tough on Cadence and Kennedy,” Justice said. “We had to go smaller in the second half and try to string it out all over the floor, but the kids really battled and you have to give them a lot of credit. We made some mistakes fouling the wrong player at the end there, but the kids really battled.”
Mingo Central advances to the championship game Saturday at 7 p.m. Waiting in the wings will be Wyoming East, the No. 1 team in Class AA.
The two teams have split the first two regular season match-ups so far this year.
“It is going to be a good game,” Davis-Smith said smiling. “They are a great team and it’s going to be physical, just like tonight was. We know each other very well, so it should be a good one.”
Greenbrier East will face Nitro in the consolation game at 1 p.m.
MC: 16 14 13 10 – 53
GW: 9 12 11 12 – 44
Mingo Central
Dalaney Grimmett 8, Cara Curry 11, Addy Smith 18, Alyssa Davis 2, Jenna Sparks 14. Totals: 18 14-16 53.
Greenbrier East
Kennedy Stewart 9, Cadence Stewart 9, Ryan White 6, Alizabeth Wooding 2, Hanna Fuller 2, Caroline Dotson 16. Totals 15 9-11 44.
3-pointers – MC: 3 (Curry, Smith 2); GE: 5 (K. Stewart, Dotson 4).
