Gallery by Heather Belcher
Oak Hill – Wins against Oak Hill have rarely come easy for Beckley over the years, especially in Fayette County.
Thursday night, the Flying Eagles put a big a number on their sectional rival.
Riding a 43-point combined performance for senior Elijah Redfern and sophomore sharpshooter Coby Dillon, Beckley walked out of the Lilly Center with a 76-48 thumping of the Red Devils.
“They went out like they had something to prove tonight,” veteran Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said. “Just give our guys credit and our assistant coaches credit for getting our guys ready. The sickness was kind of unexpected and we didn’t know we weren’t going to have our big guys.”
Coming off a disappointing, short-handed loss to Bridgeport Tuesday, the Flying Eagles hit Fred Ferri Jr. Court without starters Jaylon Walton and Nazir King who were both out with illness.
Even without the services of its two big men inside, the Flying Eagles led start to finish.
Dillon drilled a triple to open the game and Redfern scored on a strong drive to the basket for a 5-0 lead that was 17-11 after one quarter.
For Oak Hill it was deja vu to start the second quarter when Dillon canned his third 3-ball of the game and Redfern backed it up with another driving layup for the first double-digit lead of the game.
“It was a frustrating night all the way around. Really from the tip, especially from our defense,” Oak Hill head coach Benitez Jackson said. “In the first quarter I thought we got some good shots, we just missed them. From the first quarter on we were just bad all the way around. (Beckley) played really well, so I don’t want to take anything away from them. They sped our guards up. Then we got in hero-mode, taking shots too quick, and it played into their hands.”
A basket from Levi Kiszka cut the lead back to nine points before the Flying Eagles outscored the Red Devils 16-2 over the final four minutes.
A 3-pointer from Zyon Hawthorne was followed by two free-throw from Preston Clary. A layup from Dillon off of an assist from Redfern then pushed the lead to 29-13.
A triple from Clary and two from Dillon followed an Oak Hill stickback to give Beckley a commanding 38-15 lead at halftime.
“I thought Coby shot the ball extremely well. Give our team credit for finding the open man,” Kidd said. “We had 11 assists in the first half. When we move the ball like that, good thing happen. I also thought Redfern was effective with his drives.”
When the halftime horn sounded, Dillon had 19 points, including five long balls, while Redfern had nine points and six assists.
“The first possession and the first time I touched the ball, I shot it and it felt really good. I thought it was going to be a good night,” Dillon said. “My teammates did a great job getting me the ball and defensively when we got the ball they also found me really well.”
With his running-mate heating up, Redfern made it his mission to get Dillon the ball.
“My job is get him the ball and let him shoot it. Once he gets going, there is not a lot of missing he does,” Redfern said.
Watching Dillon knock down open shots against his defense was clearly not what Jackson had envisioned prior to the game.
“We talked about it at our shoot-around. We talked about it today,” Jackson said about Dillon’s long-range ability. “It was a lack of attention to detail and a lack of communication on defense. We weren’t getting to the right spot and moving with some urgency. We didn’t do any of the that. I think right now we are more offensive driven. They want to score, but we have to get down and stop people from scoring. We have to flip that mindset.”
While the home team was struggling to stop Beckley, the visitors allowed just four second quarter points.
“I thought we played extremely good defense and it might have been our best defensive effort of the whole year,” Kidd said. “I thought all our kids got down and locked up defensively.”
With Oak Hill aware of the long ball, Redfern went to work taking the ball to the rack where he scored 10 third-quarter points to help Beckley put the game to bed.
“That is what I look forward to, but it is also about taking what they give me. In the second half, they gave me the lane to take and that is what I did,” Redfern said. “In the first half they were clogging the lane, so I had to find my shooters. They adjusted in the second half and I took advantage of it.”
After three quarters Beckley led 56-28 and went on to secure the regular season sweep of the Red Devils.
“We knew we had to set the tone early. Not only because it was a sectional game, but we knew it was going to be a packed house and the rivalry is always there between us,” Redfern said. “We really like this atmosphere, but we knew we had to come in here and play hard and impact the game early.”
For a team that has been know for tough defense over the years, that was not the case Thursday for Oak Hill.
“I don’t think we guarded anybody. We didn’t contain the ball. They drove it by us easily and we didn’t contest shots. I can’t think of much that we did right, but some of that is from what they did right,” Jackson said. “Redfern is a really good player, but we let him drive the rim. If you don’t have any resistance it is easy. We have to put up more resistance and we didn’t do that. We just didn’t compete like we should have and that is the frustrating part.”
While Redfern and Dillon led the way with the big night, the supporting cast around them played a big part in the team win.
Clary scored 12 points, while Hawthorne added eight.
“A.J. (Thomas) rebounded the ball really well and I thought Zyon did a good job leading us. Preston hits some bigs shots and played well,” Kidd said. “Our kids came with a determined spirit to show people that they could play. This was a nice crowd over here tonight and it was a good sectional game.”
B: 17 21 18 20 – 76
OH: 11 4 13 20 – 48
Beckley
Coby Dillon 21, Elijah Redfern 22, Zyon Hawthorne 8, Preston Clary 12, Drew Fitzwater 4, Lucas Raney 3, Javontae Wyns 4, Owen Gunter 2. Totals: 29 6-8 76.
