Beckley – Brian Nabors admitted he probably overran his Beckley team on Thursday after nearly a week off.
Whether he did or not, they weren’t equipped to run with University.
The Hawks from Morgantown blistered the nets, hitting at a 59 percent clip in a 95-57 rout of Beckley Friday afternoon in the New River CTC Invitational at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
What started as a boat race quickly devolved into a one-sided sprint to the finish line.
Leading 14-13 with under three minutes to go in the first quarter, the Flying Eagle offense and defense came to a stop. Over the following 10 minutes the visitors from Morgantown outscored Beckley 40-14, hitting from everywhere and anywhere.
“A good defensive team doesn’t allow you to go shot for shot,” Beckley head coach Brian Nabors said. “A good defensive team shuts you down. They were getting easy shots and our shots were tough. They made shots tough for us, we didn’t make shots tougher.”
For University the assault came from every part of the court. The Hawks nailed 20 of 31 shots from inside the arc in the first half and 8 of 12 form beyond it. They had five players reach double figures, led by Hannah Stemple’s 26 on 8 of 12 shooting from the floor.
The performance propelled Stemple over 1,000 points for her career.
“I just think we’ve been really stressing sharing the basketball,” University head coach Nick Lusk said. “I thought we shared the ball really well because I think the extra passes we were making, we tell them, ‘You make the extra pass, you’re gonna get good looks.’ I thought we got a lot of good looks just because we shared the ball today and we’re not always like that. 
But today we shared the ball. They were a little under-manned, which, I’ve been there before with that too, so I know how that feels but I just I thought we shared the ball well today. Our defense I thought was decent. I thought we could’ve played a little bit better, but I thought our defense played pretty well.”
The Flying Eagles, playing without starters Donya Burton and Josie Cross, stayed afloat early by leaning on their youth.
Freshman Zoey Williams scored five straight in the opening frame to put the hosts up 7-6 before Stemple tipped the scales with a pair of free throws. A 3 from Williams later in the frame again put the Flying Eagles ahead 12-10 before Stemple responded from deep.
It was rinse and repeat for the Flying Eagles with Williams netting a layup followed by a Stemple 3, this one with a permanent touch that erased Beckley’s last lead of the contest.
The assault never ended with four different Hawks hitting from downtown in the second quarter en route to a 53-28 advantage at the break.
“We’re just not a good defensive team right now,’ Nabors said. “We’re not gonna beat good teams playing defense the way we’re playing. I’ll take the blame again. We just didn’t have any legs. We weren’t getting down the court, weren’t sprinting back in defense transition, wasn’t getting back, couldn’t guard, couldn’t get out there to get contest shots. 
We’re just terrible defensively right now. We just we just gotta get better.”
Williams led Beckley with 19 points in the loss while Abby Dillon netted 13.
