Gallery by Heather Belcher
White Sulphur Springs – When will Cadence Stewart cool off?
Unfortunately for Bridgeport the answer wasn’t Saturday night.
Averaging 27.6 points per game across Greenbrier East’s last three contests, the junior all-stater kept the hot hand Saturday evening at The Greenbrier, nailing 10 of her 18 field goal attempts en route to a 31-point showing that helped the Spartans topple Bridgeport 82-51 and secure the inaugural Battle for the Springhouse title.
With 26 points at the half, Stewart took her foot off the gas in the second half but did enough damage in the two opening quarters to help her team to a 51-30 lead.
“Cadence is a real basketball player and she shoots the ball phenomenal and that’s all there is to it,” Greenbrier East head coach and W.Va Governor Jim Justice said. “She’s not the fastest and everything so she’s really got to put out some real live effort. She’s working on it and in practice every day. I mean Cadence works and that’s just all there is to it. I just have got a lot of respect for kids that don’t have that natural born speed or height and everything but they work every day and perfect the art that they have and lo and behold they become real basketball players.”
Following Friday’s 30-point, 11-rebound effort against defending Class AAA champion Nitro, it didn’t take long for Stewart to assert her presence on Saturday.
After two quick buckets by fellow all-stater Daisha Summers staked East to a 4-2 lead, Stewart canned her first of six 3-pointers and picked travel ball teammate Gabby Reep’s pocket for a layup to push the lead to 9-2.
A 3-pointer from Reep cut the deficit to five but the combined efforts of Stewart and Summers, as well as teammates Brooke Davis and Allie Dunford, ballooned the lead to nine at 19-10. Back-to-back 3s from Stewart to end the quarter gave the Spartans a 25-10 lead that never settled below 12 points the rest of the way.
There worst was to follow as Stewart, who finished the first quarter with 12 points, added 16 more on 5 of 7 shooting from the field.
“I’m just getting in the groove,” Stewart said. “It feels like I’m hitting them at the right time and I’m getting out of my own head and just playing and having fun. That was a little bit off struggle at the beginning of the season. I wasn’t having as good of a time as I did last year. I’m just having a lot fun out there right now.”
Stewart let off in the second half, hoisting just four shots.
Bridgeport’s Reep also had a nice showing, scoring 13 in the opening half and 26 for the game, but was limited to three points in the opening quarter where the Spartans built their lead.
“Right off the get go we started a press 2-3, a diamond press 2-3 and then a triangle-and-two and put one of our great defenders on her and caused her a lot of trouble,” Justice said. “She’s a real basketball player though. There’s no question whatsoever about that. She had a lot tonight and they’re a very well-coached team and all that but I guess since the Woodrow game we decided to play some basketball and everything because we laid an egg that night and we don’t want to keep doing that.”
Stewart led all scorers with 31 points while Reep led her team with 26. Daisha Summers pitched in 21 for the Lady Spartans while Brooke Davis rounded out the double-figure scorers with 15 points.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
B (6-9): 10 20 9 12 – 51
GE: (12-4): 25 26 18 13 – 82
Bridgeport
Gabby Reep 26, Maddy Amick 6, Bailey Tomes 4, Emily Anderson 8, Myleigh Smell 5, Edwyn Knapp 2
Greenbrier East
Allie Dunford 2, Cadence Stewart 31, Brooke Davis 15, Daisha Summers 21, Marley Patterson 3, Caroline Dotson 4, Abigail Mathis 2, Kenna Sheppard 2, Alizabeth Wooding 2
3-point goals – B: 4 (Reep 2, Amick 1, Smell 1); GE: 12 (Stewart 6, Davis 3, Summers 1, Patterson 1, Dotson 1)
