Gallery by Heather Belcher
White Sulphur Springs – The scenario Friday night looked very familiar to Greenbrier East.
Give up an early lead and come storming back.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, this time they fell behind one time too many.
After surrendering an 11-point second quarter deficit, Class AAAA No. 2 Parkersburg South erupted on No. 5 ranked East to open the final period.
Riding an 11-0 run to start the final eight minutes, the Patriots pulled away from the hometown Spartans for a 78-69 win at the Battle for the Springhouse inside Colonial Hall at The Greenbrier.
“What a great environment here. They do everything first class here. It was like an NCAA tournament type feel,” Parkersburg South head coach Mike Fallon said. “Greenbrier East is tough. Those kids can play. They understand the game so well and they play hard. They are undersized, but they fight. They are a legitimate top-5 team in the state.”
With the game running at warp speed in the opening quarter, South jumped out to a 24-15 lead in the first eight minutes.
The lead went to 11 points on a bucket from Cyrus Traugh before East finally started heat up at the hands of Goose Gabbert. Gabbert scored 10 in the quarter to ignite the Spartans and help cut the lead back to one point at halftime.
“Parkersburg South is No. 2 in the state for a reason. They are a great team, but on the flip side I am very proud of our guys tonight. For three quarters, we battled. (Parkersburg South) started off hot and we could have rolled over, but that is not our team’s makeup,” Greenbrier East head coach Jared Patton said. “We won the second quarter and the third quarter. We may have run out of gas a little in the fourth.”
The Patriots pushed the lead out to five points on two separate occasions in the second period, but East refused to go away.
A blow by layup from Monquelle Davis and a score from Gabbert on a runout cut the lead to one with 3:21 left in the quarter.
Traugh stemmed the tide with a pair of free throws, but Gabbert responded with a traditional 3-point play followed by a score from Kaiden Huffman off a no-look pass from Adam Seams.
A triple from Traugh gave South the lead again, but when the quarter came to a close the two teams were knotted at 53 points apiece.
While East appeared to have all of the momentum it needed to win the game, that all changed in the first three minutes of the final period.
“I think we wore them down a little bit,” Fallon said. “They missed a couple of shots that they had made earlier and they kind of hit a wall.”
Four points each from Traugh and 6-foot-8 big man Nathan Plotner accounted for the majority of the run that broke the game open.
A pair of free throws from Gabbert stopped the bleeding, but Greenbrier East could not muster a final push to close the gap.
“It may have been a little bit of fatigue, but we went away from what were doing and that was pitching the ball ahead and attacking,” Patton said. “We got a little dribble happy and we changed as went in the fourth.”
Traugh, who has played his best basketball of late, scored a season-high 23 points. Plotner, who had a 101 degree temperature Thursday, finished with 15 points and two emphatic slams. Aiden Blake scored 16 points.
“This is the first time that Cyrus has gotten his wheels going. He seems to finally have his basketball legs back from football,” Fallon said. “He took a beating in football and now he has bounced back. He loves a stage like this. It doesn’t swallow him up.”
The senior all-stater was all smiles after the game.
“It was really fun tonight. Both us and Greenbrier East love high tempo games and running teams out of the gym. It was really fun playing another team like that. The environment was great,” Traugh said. “For me, the key is to not put too much pressure on myself and let things come naturally. I am really competitive and play fast, so I just don’t need to force anything.”
Gabbert matched Traugh with 23 points, while Seams and Davis added 11 points each.
Parkersburg South will now play Class AAA No. 1 Shady Spring in the boys championship game Saturday at 5 p.m.
“We will definitely have our hands full with them,” Fallon said. “They play great defensively and they are very physical. They are really going to get after you. They want to come out and punch you in the mouth and see if you just take it or fight back.”
PS: 24 9 20 25 – 78
GE: 15 17 21 16 – 69
Parkersburg South
Austin Reeves 9, Cyrus Traugh 23, Miciah Jones 2, Jackson Smith 2, Cole Joy 2, Harry Silvis 9, Nathan Plotner 15, Aiden Blake 16.
Greenbrier East
Adam Seams 11, Monquelle 11, Goose Gabbert 23, Gabe Patton 4, Chris Sinclair 6, Kaiden Huffman 7, Bryson Brammer 5.
3-pointers – PS: 4 (Silvis 3, Blake); GE: 5 (Gabbert 3, Davis, Brammer)
