Gallery by Heather Belcher
Beckley – Charleston Catholic head coach Hunter Moles always tells his team to win the third quarter and finish the fourth.
The Irish delivered.
Trailing Wyoming East 32-31 in the third quarter, the Irish closed the frame on an 8-0 run, holding off another late charge to secure a 55-46 victory the Pepsi Division Championship of the Little General Battle for the Armory Friday evening at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
Catholic led for most of the game, though it never could shake East which hung in with its defense when the offense went cold.
“I thought we played well in spurts a couple of times,” East head coach Derek Brooks said. “A few minutes and parts of each quarter we kind of let it get away from us. They went on a few runs there. I think we got close to tying it there in the fourth then they went on a nano run after that. We had chances there, a couple open looks we didn’t knock down. But I mean, they’ve got a good team.”
East took its final lead of the first half late in the first quarter on a Cole Lambert layup before Catholic star Jayallen Turner answered with a 3 to retake the lead at 15-13. Lambert’s bucket was the start of a lengthy drought for East, one that wasn’t snapped until the 3:34 mark of the second quarter when Zack Hunt nailed a 3 to snap the skid. Hunt followed with another bucket and Lambert continued the barrage with a three-point play that pulled East to within two at 23-21.
Trailing 27-23 at the break, East chipped away, tying the game on a Bryson Huff 3 at 31 and inching ahead later when Huff split a pair of free throws.
But Turner, who finished with a game-high 31 points, keyed an 8-0 run to end the quarter, extending it to 10-0 through the fourth to again push East away.
“We really closed the third quarter well,” Moles said. “I was really proud of the guys that got a little momentum. We were playing a little stagnant, a little timid and we got a little momentum going and a good pace to us. I liked how the guys finished the third. We actually won every quarter. So I mean, there’s not much I can complain about there. We like to break the game down. But you gotta give credit to Wyoming East which is a tough team. Double-A is tough basketball. I told these guys, no offense to these four-A high schools, but you just don’t see these tough-nosed games with four-A schools. We sit down and guard in double-A and this was proof of that.”
Down 10 following a Turner free throw, East made one last run in the fourth.
Treys from Lambert and Hunt sandwiched a Konnor Fox layup, trimming the deficit to four at 48-44 but East again ran out of gas with Turner scoring 11 of his 31 points in the final frame.
“We know he can score it at every level,” Brooks said of Turner. “I mean, he could score outside of 3, in the mid-range and get all the way to the rim. He’s just a matchup nightmare for us. He has been every time but we’ve just kind of kept him under control a little bit fortunately the last two times. But he’s been on so it was expected, we didn’t want to give up 31 to him, but he’s a player.”
Turner did damage from all over the floor but was particularly effective from the free throw line where he finished 7 of 8. The rest of the Irish followed his lead finishing 15 of 18 from the charity stripe as a team while East was 3 of 5. It was the noticeable difference in a game where neither team turned the ball over more than 10 times of shot under 45 percent.
“They’re all slashers, that’s the way they like to play,” Brooks said. “They don’t shoot a lot outside shots – they like to attack and drive and that’s how you get fouls to get to the free throw line. I think we sometimes can tend to settle for the outside shot instead of getting to the rim and we’ve got to be better at that. We’ve got to get to the rim and get to the ball so we can have those chances.”
Fox, Lambert Hunt and Huff all finished in double figures with Fox’s 13 leading the way.
Max Wilcox added 12 for Catholic in the win while Zaden Ranson grabbed 13 rebounds.
