Brushfork – Leading Wyoming East by 15 points on Friday, Bluefield ultimately failed to preserve that lead, falling to the Warriors in overtime.
With a chance to display their progress on Tuesday, the Beavers did just that.
Leading by as many as 24 points in the third quarter, the Beavers held off a late Beckley rally to topple their Class AAAA rivals 68-61 at the Brushfork Armory.
An 11-0 fourth-quarter run helped the visitors cut the deficit to three at 54-51 with 3:26 left but the play of Caleb Fuller, who scored a game-high 28 points, helped the hosts preserve the victory.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Bluefield coach Buster Large said. “We definitely have to make some improvements on holding these leads. But we’re five points away from being 15-0, so we’re playing good basketball. These kids are very talented and they’re only going to get better.”
The staunch defensive play of the Beavers helped them to a 28-8 lead after the first quarter as they forced eight turnovers and moved the ball well. Of their 12 first-quarter field goals, six were assisted on with three more coming courtesy of steals in the open court.
Fuller, who finished the first half with 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting, picked off four passes in the opening half, turning them into layups on the other end.
It was another slid night at the office for the sharpshooter who shot 67 percent from the field (12 of 18), canning three 3s.
“I thought our coach did a good job of running set stuff,” Fuller said. “I thought my teammates looked for me all night and we always look for each other. Defensively Coach (Tony) Webster stresses that every day in practice. Defense is what gets you on the floor up here and he stresses that 100 percent and if we go 100 percent on defense we always have a chance to win.”
An 8-0 Beckley run that featured 3-pointers from Maddex McMillen and Landyn Wolfe trimmed the deficit to 12 but an 11-0 run by the hosts to close the second quarter staked them to a 41-18 advantage at the break.
It was a nightmare of a half where the Flying Eagles turned the ball over 14 times.
“I think we were coming down the court thinking they weren’t going to try and go for the ball,” Beckley coach Ron Kidd said. “When people are coming for the ball you’ve got to put your chicken wing out there and we kind of didn’t protect the ball and they got easy steals from us. But I thought the second, third and fourth quarters we didn’t let that happen.”
Trailing by 24 points early in the third an 18-7 run, capped by Sam Peck 3-pointer gave the Flying Eagles life.
Unfortunately for the visitors Fuller was there to snatch it.
A corner 3-pointer from the junior pushed the lead back to 16 heading to the fourth.
Hope was restored shortly afterwards. Consecutive 3-pointers from McMillen, Zan Hill and Kellen Hefferman were a part of the 11-0 Beckley run that trimmed the deficit to three late.
“We started showing a little heart,” Kidd said, motioning to his chest. “It’s like it meant something to them. When you play a sport it’s gotta mean something to you. If it don’t mean anything to you then you shouldn’t be playing. I thought we showed heart right there.”
Unfortunately heart wasn’t enough to slow down Fuller, who scored all seven of his fourth-quarter points after Beckley’s run, ending the comeback bid.
“He’s a battler,” Large said of Fuller. “We got off to a good start and had a lot of sharing the ball. We played good defense and I think that’s what gave us the lead. You’ve got Woodrow Wilson that has all that great tradition and they’re to going to lay over and they didn’t. We had a comfortable lead at the half and we knew we had to still play and we did, but in the fourth they started shooting 3s. When they started hitting the momentum changed. But I’m very proud of our kids. We’re moving in the right direction.”
R.J. Hairston was the Beavers’ second-leading scorer with 12 points while Chance Johnson added 11. Elijah Redfern led Beckley with 17 points while Maddex McMillen finished with 12.
Bluefield improves to 12-3 and will welcome county foe Princeton to the Brushfork Armory on Thursday. Beckley falls to 3-11 and will travel to George Washington on Thursday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
B: 8 10 18 25 – 68
BLFD: 28 13 11 16 – 61
Beckley
Kellen Hefferman 6, Maddex McMillen 12, Landyn Wolfe 5, Elijah Redfern 17, Brayden Hawthorne 2, Zan Hill 7, Sam Peck 8
Bluefield
Ja’eon Flack 7, Chance Johnson 11, Caleb Fuller 28, Will Looney 6, RJ Hairston 12, Jamel Floyd 4
3-point goals – B: 9 (Hefferman 2, McMillen 2, Wolfe 1, Redfern 1, Hill 1, Peck 2); BLFD:
