The difference between youth and experience was on full display Friday night.
Naturally, experience won out.
Rolling out a lineup with four returning starters, Beckley blitzed Wyoming East in the first quarter, building a cushion that it maintained throughout a 67-44 schooling of the young Warriors Friday night in the Little General Battle for the Armory at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
East, which started a pair of freshmen and a sophomore, quickly found itself overwhelmed and while it steadied the ship, the final wave was too much to overcome. It started on defense for the Flying Eagles who forced four of Wyoming East’s 18 turnovers in the opening quarter, using a 13-0 run to establish dominance early.
“I thought it was our defense that got us going on that 13-0 run,”Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said. “But we also rebounded well, and that’s what we told our kids – we would have to rebound good against them. I think they got too many offensive rebounds, but I thought we held our own pretty good with as big as they were.”
Beckley largely saw two conductors driving the success throughout the night.
Point guard Zyon Hawthorne was the first, netting 12 of his team-high 17 points in the first quarter on 5 of 6 shooting. The barrage came in a multitude of ways with a pair of dunks off of steals highlighting the run. Though the Warriors weren’t out of it despite their early struggles.
Hawthorne opened the scoring with a 3 before A.J. Thomas, Jaylon Walton and Hawthorne added six more points to make it 9-2 for the Flying Eagles.
Buckets from Talan Muscari and Braxton Morgan cut the gap to three before the tidal wave hit. A Hawthorne slam was followed by a 3 from Coby Dillon, igniting the 13-0 stretch that saw the Flying Eagles lead 22-6 following Hawthorne’s second trey of the quarter.
“I thought he was very active and he was very bouncy,” Kidd said. “That’s the way he’s gonna have to be, every game like that for us.”
“It was not getting back on defense,” Wyoming East interim head coach Herbie Brooks said. “I mean, yes, they sped it up, we took some shots, I’m not gonna say great shots. We have a problem at this armory, every time I’ve coached, It’s three, 3-point lines out here and they’re open, but they’re three or four feet behind the last 3-point line, where when we’re in our gym, it’s one 3-point line, we’re open and we get a good shot. Here we’re taking 25-, 26-foot shots. 
They’re open, but they’re not good shots, so we gotta work on that, but the 13-0 run, I’ll bet you during that run four or five of those buckets were not getting back on defense where they shot layups and dunks.”
A Broc Johnson jumper broke the spell for a 22-8 deficit heading into the second frame. That’s where the Warriors found life, ripping a 15-4 run, powered by Corey Hall, Braxton Morgan and Johnson. Back to within a possession a 26-23, the Warriors ran into their second obstacle – a motivated Jaylon Walton.
Matched up against the 6-foo-9 Konnor Fox, Walton was undeterred, scoring six points in the second quarter.
A layup helped make it a two-possession game again and Preston Clary extended that advantage with a 3. A layup from Coby Dillon made it a 33-23 game and the double-digit advantage held into the break at 39-27.
Walton and Clary continued the assault in the second half, combing for 11 points in the third quarter, never allowing the lead to fall below double digits the rest of the way.
Walton, who finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds on 7 of 12 shooting gave Kidd exactly what he hoped for.
“I just thought Jaylon came ready to play,” Kidd said. “For his size, he has to be one of the best big men in the state and that’s what we think. He’s gotta play big like that each and every night for us to be good. He’s got control the boards and he’s got a score for us on the inside and he did that tonight.”
Clary (11 points) joined Walton and Hawthorne in double figures.
Johnson, a freshman, led Wyoming East and all scorers with 18 points while Braxton Morgan added 12.
Beckley will face Shady Spring Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Burger King Division championship while Wyoming East will face defending Class AA state champion Charleston Catholic in the consolation round.
