Gallery by Tina Laney
Lindside – Following two lopsided losses in the regular season, Greenbrier West hoped to pull a huge upset over top-ranked James Monroe in their Class A Region 3 co-final championship game.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, that card had been played two years ago and the Mavericks came ready to play Thursday night.
Never trailing in the contest, James Monroe raced out to a 44-12 first half advantage and coasted to an 86-27 triumph.
The Mavericks now head back to the boys state tournament to defend their Class A title. James Monroe earned the No. 1 seed and will face No. 8 seed Cameron Tuesday night at 7:15 p.m. inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Two years ago, James Monroe entered the regional co-final at 17-1, owning two regular season wins over the Cavaliers, including a 21-point victory in Lindside.
In a wild finish in regulation to tie the game, Greenbrier West stunned the home team in overtime, 64-57.
“I would like to say (the game two years ago) doesn’t come into the conversation, but it 100 percent does (with) our senior class especially,” James Monroe head coach Matt Sauvage said. “This game means more to them tonight than people realize. For a lack of better words, two years ago they felt like they were cheated out of a run to states.”
“We are not calling out anybody, but in their minds that is what it felt like,” Sauvage went on to say. “From that day on it has been a mission. Part of the mission is to win (another) state championship. The other part of the mission was to prove some points because of two years ago, if that makes sense.”
James Monroe led 7-5 midway through the first period before a 15-0 spurt over the next three minutes put Greenbrier West in dire straits.
“It is hard to come up with a gameplan against them. I thought we did a good job of controlling tempo early and we made them take some tough shots,” Greenbrier West head coach Jared Robertson said. “They made a couple, but the biggest thing was we didn’t rebound when they missed and we couldn’t convert on the other end.”
The Cavaliers pulled within 14 points at the end of the first quarter, but that was the calm before the storm.
“Coming in everybody was talking about states, but the coaches really emphasized focusing on this game. That is what we did and we took care of business,” senior all-stater Eli Allen said. “That game two years ago still hurts me to this day, but we came back and I feel like we have made up for it. We came in here level headed tonight and ready to play. Now the real season begins.”
With turnovers leading to points, James Monroe built a 29-12 lead with 5:10 to play in the first half.
Over the final five minutes, the visitors were held scoreless, while the Mavs scored 15 points for a commanding 32-point lead at the break.
A bucket from Collin Fox was sandwiched between long balls from Owen Jackson and Ryan Mann for a 37-12 lead.
Another forced turnover found its way into Fox’s hands who pitched it forward to Allen for a slam dunk, much to the delight of the capacity crowd.
“They are really good. We knew they would be good this year with the players they had coming back, but we didn’t think they would be quite at the level of last year,” Robertson said. “I don’t know about in November, but now they are better than last year. My hats off to anybody in Charleston that can beat them, but I don’t see it happening.”
Another score from Allen and a triple from Fox capped the explosion and the only question that remained was what would be the final score of the night.
“I was a little nervous coming into tonight, but we couldn’t ask for much more,” Sauvage said. “As a player I never got too nervous, but I guess as a coach you don’t control it as much because you are on the sideline. I think we are right where we want to be going into next week with our practices and our game play, everything. Hopefully we can execute can next week.”
Allen led the way with 18 points and Fox added 15 points. Evan Hunter had 12 points off the bench and Josh Burks scored 10, while Juan Hopkins scored nine.
The Mavericks knocked down 13 shots from behind the arc and ten players scored Thursday night.
“Juan is a first-year player, but he is a great player that fights for rebounds and we couldn’t ask for anything more out of him,” Burks said. “Cooper (Ridgeway) and Owen come in the game and battle. All of the guys come in off the bench and just battle for us.”
“A lot of people think we are not very deep, but a lot of these guys on the bench could start for a lot of single-A teams. I hate it for them sometimes, but it is great for us,” Sauvage said. “If we didn’t have those players all year round, whether it is in practice or injuries, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
After winning the Class A state title last year, the 2022-23 version of the Mavericks will look to leave their own mark on Charleston.
“This team is just as driven as last year’s team. They want to make their own mark,” Sauvage said. “They don’t want to go off a 28-0 last year’s team. That was a great team and they accomplished a lot of things, but this team wants to make its own mark.”
GW: 8 4 7 8 – 27
JM: 22 22 20 22 – 86
Greenbrier West
Brayden McClung 9, Tanner Hagy 5, Damion Dixon 2, Isaac Agee 8, Michael Kanode 2. Totals: 9 8-19 27
James Monroe
Josh Burks 10, Layton Dowdy 6, Cooper Ridgeway 4, Eli Allen 18, Ryan Mann 3, Evan Hunter 12, Collin Fox 15, Juan Hopkins 9, Owen Jackson 5, Brady Baker 4. Totals: 32 5-6 86.
