Wednesday night, the big schools across the state of West Virginia square off to decide the eight teams that will battle in Charleston for the Class AAAA title.
Two of the 16 teams hoping for one of those coveted spots will be Greenbrier East and Princeton.
With a victory over the Tigers in the sectional championship game, the Spartans will host defending state champion George Washington in one Region 3 co-final clash, while Princeton will head to South Charleston in the other co-final game.
The winners will advance to the Boys State Basketball Tournament to be held March 15-19 inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Greenbrier East has battled through a turbulent season that has seen it suffer some gut-wrenching setbacks. With a favorable bounce or call here and there, the Spartans could easily be 17-6, instead of 13-10.
However, East proved itself to be resilient in the shadow of those tough losses to capture its first sectional title since 2010.
Now the Spartans have their eyes set on the bigger prize, their first regional title since 2015 when they stunned No. 1 ranked Capital on the road.
“We had to grow up. That has been our story all season,” Greenbrier East head coach Jared Patton said after the sectional championship win. “We just continue to grow as a team and believing in one another, but our job is not done.”
The key to East’s postseason surge has been the ability of its guards to get in the lane and distribute the ball for easy scores or kick-out 3-pointers.
The Spartans will need Adam Seams to continue his all-state caliber play leading the show for East if they hope to knock of the Patriots.
Although the two teams have not played in the regular season, they did meet in the Region 3 co-final clash last year.
That game happened in Charleston and did not go the way of the Spartans.
Coming off a 27-point performance against Princeton in the sectional championship, senior Aaron Griffith was already motivated for another shot at the Patriots.
“They knocked us out last year and we have been looking for revenge,” Griffith said after the Princeton win. “This is the game we have been looking forward to all year. We knew we would have to go through them to get to states and that is what we are going to try our best to do.”
The Black Eagles have won back-to-back stunners to open the postseason. Both of the wins have also come on the road.
Before South Charleston upset George Washington in the sectional championship, the Black Eagles ran all over Capital, beating the Cougars by 21 points.
Princeton dropped the regular season meeting between the school at home by 13 points.
“We played them at home, but we didn’t play well. (Now) they are playing great basketball and that is a concern,” Princeton head coach Robb Williams said. “To do what they did to Capital at Capital and then beat GW, they have to be a really good team. They are big and they shoot well.”
The Achilles heel for the Tigers this year has been foul trouble. Princeton will have to keep its stars on the floor to pull off the upset.
Both games are slated for 7 p.m. starts.
