Tuesday night in Coal City it was a battle between two teams possessing slightly different mindsets.
Independence stepped on the floor coming off a near upset of Class AAA No. 1 Shady Spring Friday and a lopsided win over Lincoln Saturday. Greenbrier East, on the other hand, handled county rival Greenbrier West with ease for its Friday victory, but backed the win up with a disappointing loss at Lewis County Saturday afternoon.
In the key AAA Region 3 showdown, it was the Spartans who rekindled their Friday fire, while the Patriots failed match the weekend energy.
Seizing control of the game in the second period, Greenbrier hammered Independence 82-44.
“We talked about that loss yesterday in practice,” Greenbrier East head coach Jared Patton said. “What type of team are we? Are we one that just can’t take it to the next level? Are we a team that just goes through the motions? I thought Saturday we just came out and went through the motions. We came out ready to play tonight.”
The lead bounced back and forth for the first part of the opening quarter, but when the horn sounded, the visitors held a 17-12 lead which it refused to relinquish the remainder of the night.
A score from Dylan Wykle with 4:40 to play in the first half gave Greenbrier East a double-digit lead for the first time and the visitors never looked back.
Buckets from Brody Hamric, Reed McGraw and Braylen Godfrey extended the lead to 17 points late in the quarter before it settled at 39-23 at the break.
“We didn’t play very hard tonight. I was disappointed in our effort and I don’t normally say that with this group. It just goes back to mental toughness,” Independence head coach Shawn Jenkins said. “You have 22 (regular season) games in this sport. It is a grind, so you have to learn to be mentally tough, game in and game out. We are young, but we have to learn how to play consistently. We are not playing consistently right now. As the old saying goes, back to the drawing board.”
The opening sequence of the second half was a microcosm of the contest for the Patriots.
Independence took the ball inside, but failed on a layup attempt. The Spartans gathered the rebound, raced down the floor and Wykle drilled a 3-pointer to ignite a 12-2 run over the opening four minutes of the quarter.
“When we share the ball, that gets everybody involved in the game. One of our keys to the game as well was we had to own the boards. Independence is a strong team, a tough team and they hit the boards good,” Patton said. “They have some good shooters, so one of the keys was own the glass, pitch it ahead and see if we can get some transition buckets and it worked out well for us.”
Greenbrier East led by 24 points after three quarters, but it was not the game that the Spartan coach had expected.
“They played Shady super tough. I watched that game online and we knew they would be tough. They played Shady great,” Patton emphasized. “Just us playing team ball was the difference. It didn’t matter who we subbed in, there was no drop off. We had a 10-man rotation tonight and everyone stepped up and was ready to play. I am very proud of them.”
Nate Dixon led the balanced scoring for East with 19 points. Hamric added 16 and Wykle scored 15. Reed McGraw finished with nine, while Layne Lambert and Brayden Godfrey netted eight points each.
Ashton Arthur paced the Patriots with 15 points and Sylas Nelson had 11.
“If you look on this board (in the locker room), it says mental toughness. We don’t have that right now. We showed a little bit of it Friday night (against Shady Spring) and Saturday when we played. Then we slipped back into our old ways. We are just not mentally tough,” Jenkins lamented. “When you play four quarters in a basketball game, I promise you everything is not going to go right. You have to grow up some, face those challenges and turn the energy back around where it needs to be. We couldn’t do that tonight for whatever reason.”
Up next for the Greenbrier County lads is a battle with the top team in Class AAAA Friday afternoon in the Battle for The Springhouse at The Greenbrier.
“It doesn’t matter who we play or where we play, we have to play our ball. It doesn’t make a difference,” Patton said. “Spring Mills is the No. 1 team in four-A and they are next on our schedule. We have to play them, so let go give them everything that we have.”
Independence will look to bounce back when it hosts PikeView Friday night.
GE: 17 22 20 23 – 82
I: 12 11 12 9 – 44
Greenbrier East
Don Penn 5, Brody Hamric 16, Nate Dixon 19, Reed McGraw 9, Sam Hawver 2, Layne Lambert 8, Dylan Wykle 15, Braylen Godfrey 8.
Independence
Ashton Arthur 15, Sylas Nelson 11, Landon Riddle 4, Brock Green 3, Koltin Murphy 2, Reid Warden 2, Kaden Bradbury 4, Hunter Austin 3.
