Gallery by Heather Belcher
The final five-and-a-half minutes of the fourth quarter were emblematic of the night for Beckley in one of its biggest matchups of the season.
Trailing 43-42 with just under six minutes to play, the Flying Eagles never scored again, falling 51-42 against South Charleston in the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
The only matchup of the season between the two teams, the loss almost guarantees the Flying Eagles will finish no higher than the No. 3 seed in the region, meaning they’ll likely need to win on the road in a regional co-final in order to advance to the state tournament next month.
The letdown was largely fueled by two factors – a loss on the boards (31-19) and the inability to consistently string together quality offensive possessions. Nothing came easy for the Flying Eagles who struggled to consistently generate open looks against the overwhelming length and size of the Black Eagles, often bringing the half-court offense to a halt.
“We’ve been a good defensive team here for the last few years,” South Charleston head coach Josh Daniel 
said. “It’s why we’ve had success and we got back to that tonight. That’s who we are, that’s what we hang our hat on. We struggled to score in the half court sometimes, but we try to turn our offense into defense sometimes. We made a little adjustment the second half on (Zyon) Hawthorne and tried to just really deny him everywhere and limited him.
“He could go get a shot whenever he wants to, and he’s really good player, so we wanted to make it as tough as possible for him and I thought he wore down a little bit in the second half. He was bent over and seemed tired. We just tried to run different guys at him, so the kids did a great job of what we asked them to do. When they play like that, we could beat a lot of people.”
The offensive struggles started early for the Flying Eagles who found themselves in a 10-2 hole three minutes in following an Elijah Martin 3.
A timeout refocused the hosts who responded with a 10-0 run that featured 3-pointers from Hawthorne and Coby Dillon. Martin snapped the skid before the horn with a 3 of his own, segueing into a second quarter that saw neither team lead by more than three points with Dillon netting another 3 before the half to knot the game at 26.
Hawthorne was the main benefactor for Beckley, canning 5 of 9 field goal attempts in the first half for his team-high 13 points at the break but the shift to focus on him played dividends for the visitors. Everything was contested for him in the second half where he was held to 2 of 7 shooting from the field
Compounding those struggles was a Black Eagle offense that found a rhythm in the third quarter, shooting 54 percent (7 of 13) from the field.
The struggles were troublesome in the third quarter where Zane Saunders hit a 3-pointer with four minutes to go to give the visitors a 37-30 lead and that seven-point advantage carried over to start the fourth quarter.
A three-point play from Dillon kicked off a rally and eventual 8-2 run to open the frame, one capped by a Hawthorne 3.
Those were the last points scored on the evening as the Flying Eagles missed their final eight field goal attempts, five from beyond the arc.
The shooting struggles weren’t the only challenge facing the hosts. The 31-19 rebounding margin cost them critical possession with 11 of South Charleston’s boards coming on the offensive glass. It offset any advantage the Flying Eagles had from the 10 turnovers they forced.
“They just out-toughed us,” Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said.
“I thought our guards did a good job just sticking their nose in there and getting some tough rebounds,” Daniel said. “We can’t just rely on our 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-7 guys to go in there and get every rebound. As far as (Tavares) Porter and (Malcolm) Brown and (Shady) Williams, those guys stuck their nose in there and got some tough rebounds and kept possessions alive for us and that was really huge.”
Hawthorne’s 19 points led all scorers while South Charleston placed four in double figures, led by 12 each form Deshad Williams and Zane Saunders.
SC: 13 13 15 10 – 51
B: 12 14 8 7 – 42
South Charleston
Zane Saunders 12, Tavarish Porter 2, Elijah Martin 11, Roman Kellum 3, Deshad Williams 12, Malcolm Brown 11
Beckley
Coby Dillon 12, Zyon Hawthorne 19, Preston Clary 7, Taylor Williams 2, Jaylon Walton 1
