Gallery by Heather Belcher
Wednesday afternoon Independence was not looking for a masterpiece at the New River CTC Tournament inside the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
What the Patriots were looking for was their first win of the season.
In a game that featured 25 turnovers on each side, a late bucket from Cory Shumate and two free-throws from Cyrus Goodson were enough to lift Independence past Greenbrier West for a 49-46 victory.
“We had to work for it, but it feels good finally getting the W. The kids deserved it,” Independence head coach Shawn Jenkins said. “They come to practice and they work hard. They listen and they are really coachable. I am just really happy for them.”
Independence led by five points after the first quarter and by eight with just under five minutes to play in the half.
However, with the Cavaliers struggling mightily to score, the Patriots watched numerous opportunities to build a commanding lead vanish on missed looks inside. Indy also converted just two of its seven free throw attempts in the opening half.
“We missed several layups that we should have made and we are not shooting very good at the free-throw line,” Jenkins said.
With Independence struggling to get the ball in the basket from close range, it allowed West to dodge a huge bullet early.
“We haven’t played in two weeks. We had a couple of in-house scrimmages, but there is no excuse to come out and go through the motions. That was what we were doing,” Greenbrier West head coach Jared Robertson said. “We worked against the 1-3-1 for a half hour yesterday. Then we walked out there and looked like we had never seen one before. We weren’t mentally ready to play.”
A nearly three-minute drought by the Patriots allowed the Cavaliers to climb back in the game. When the halftime horn sounded, the game was knotted at 25 apiece.
“Second quarter, down the stretch, we played pretty good,” Robertson said. “We changed our press and kind of of got our kids to let them make mistakes.”
The Cavaliers moved out to a five-point lead on three separate occasions, but by the end of the quarter, the Patriots were back within two points.
“The third quarter we did the same thing on defense, but we just couldn’t finish plays,” Robertson lamented. “We should have been up 10 at the end of the third quarter. You let a team hang around, they make shots at the end and you get beat.”
Leading 42-40 with 5:51 to play, Greenbrier West did not score again until the 2:18 mark of the fourth quarter.
During that span, Independence scored five points to take a 45-42 lead before back-to-back buckets from Brayden McClung put the Cavaliers back in front.
Shumate’s bucket came with 1:44 to play and Goodson converted both ends of the 1-and-1 for the final margin.
“You can’t go into a game and shoot 32 percent and have 25 turnovers against a team that sits back in a zone most of the time and think you are going to beat anybody,” Robertson said.
Goodson was a thorn in Cavaliers side all night. The athletic senior scored 20 points, had six assists, five steals and four rebounds. Playing in just his second game of the season, Jenkins was all smiles after the game.
“He is an athlete and super athletic. We are tickled to death to have him,” Jenkins said. “I knew he would end up at the foul line a lot because he does go to the basket hard and he is slippery down there. To see Cyrus step up there at the end of the game and knock them down was a good feeling.”
“He is just a phenomenal athlete,” Robertson said. “He can run and jump. He can do a little bit of everything and gives them the kind of athlete they need to be better.”
Shumate added 11 points and hauled down 15 rebounds, all on the defensive end to limit extra looks by the Cavaliers.
Michael Konode played well inside for West scoring 18 points, while McClung finished with 11.
“We have kids that have a lot of experience that turned the ball over way too many times,” Robertson said. “I thought Michael played well around the rim, but we didn’t have a single guard get hot and make shots and it really hurt us.”
Greenbrier West (1-4) is back in action Thursday in the New River CTC when it battles Liberty at 5 p.m. Independence (1-5) will host Wyoming East Tuesday in Coal City.
