Gallery by Tina Laney
A young Beckley boys basketball squad has felt the sting of some close early season losses so far this season.
Saturday night in the final game of the New River CTC Invitational Huntington threw a little more salt in the wound.
Trailing by 10 points heading into the final quarter of play, the Flying Eagles twice fought back to within one point, but could never get over the hump.
A pair of costly turnovers in crunch time and a missed 3-point effort inside five seconds left Beckley lamenting a 68-65 loss to the Highlanders.
Just like Friday night against Greenbrier East, Huntington came out firing from deep to build a 10-point halftime lead.
Launching 17 shots from behind the arc, nine of the missiles found the mark with four of them coming from point guard Duane Harris II.
“They didn’t shoot that way against Greenbrier East, at least in the second half. The first half they did,” Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said. “We knew (Motley) could shoot, then Duane got hot. We know Duane can play.”
After watching an 18-point lead vanish in a loss to the Spartans, Harris put the weight of the game on his shoulders.
“We have been struggling as a team shooting, but some jump shots fell tonight. It was good to see the ball go through the hoop,” Harris said. “Yesterday I felt like I could have done better in crunch time and I owed that to my teammates to and my coaches to pull through tonight.”
Beckley cut the 10-point halftime deficit to two points in the third period before Huntington erased the Beckley momentum with an 8-0 run of its own.
Approaching five minutes to play, the Flying Eagles again cut into the lead at 57-54.
A bucket and a pair of free throws from Harris appeared to quell the Beckley momentum, but the Flying Eagles kept fighting.
Trailing by eight after a Motley 3-pointer, Coby Dillon drilled a 3-ball prior to Zyon Hawthorne scoring on an acrobatic layup, hanging in the air as the defenders flew by him.
Jaylon Walton converted on the next trip for Beckley to cut the lead to one point and the Armory crowd was electric.
“I thought we played good defense, but you could almost say the ball didn’t bounce our way enough. It bounced their way,” Kidd said.
A huge block by Braden Hawthorne on a drive by Harris appeared to give the ball back to Beckley. That was before Mikey Johnson ripped the ball free and scored to give Huntington a 66-63 lead with just over a minute to play.
A drive from Elijah Redfern cut the lead back to one with 16.4 seconds to play, but Harris converted two free-throws for the final margin.
“It is good to get out of here with a win. We have a ways to go,” Huntington head coach Ty Holmes said. “We have to be able to keep leads, play together and play solid. This is a tough place to play and it was a long trip. The transmission went out on the bus and we had to switch buses, but they fought and found a way to win.”
Harris riddled Beckley all over the floor scoring 33 points, going 5-for-7 from behind the arc and 11-for 17 overall. He made six of his seven free-throw attempts.
“(Duane) played hard and played well. He moved the ball well, shot the ball good and attacked the basket,” Holmes said. “He wants the ball and he wants to make plays.”
Kidd felt like his team could have done a better job on the athletic Huntington point guard Saturday.
“I think we were making it hard on ourselves is what I think,” Kidd said. “Just stay between your man and the basket is what we have to do. We have the size. When he broke us down, our big guys inside should have done more.”
Although the losses are not what Kidd wants to see, he does have faith in his young squad.
“You have to give our kids credit. We are young, but they have a lot of fight. That is what I like about this team,” Kidd said. “They are going to be mad about this loss and they know what they have to do. They have to come to practice Monday and get ready for Capital.”
Beckley travels to battle the Cougars Tuesday.