Gallery by Karen Akers
Shady Spring head boys basketball coach Ronnie Olson admitted he can sound like a broken record.
Olson has long implored his team to continue to play defense and the (offensive) run will come.
The decisive run was a little later than normal Friday night against Beckley inside the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center, but just as Olson predicted, the explosion did eventually make an appearance.
Trailing by two points early in the fourth quarter, the Class AAA No. 1 ranked Tigers ran off 18 points in a row to beat the Flying Eagles 67-55.
“It was a hard fought, county rivalry game. We knew it was going to be because these guys have been playing against each other their whole lives,” Olson said. “Woodrow (Wilson) and Shady has become a good rivalry and a healthy rivalry. It is good for our area and it’s great to see both teams playing each other at such a high level.”
Shady led by six points in the second quarter only to see Beckley run it back to an even game at the break.
In the third period, it was the Flying Eagles that held the six point advantage before the Tigers stormed back to tie the game at 41-41 with eight minutes to play.
“It was on me for letting (Beckley) play their style of basketball,” Olson said. “I was too worried about our guys getting in foul trouble and didn’t play defense. I decided we weren’t going to do that at halftime.”
After both teams traded baskets, Braydon Hawthorne drove the baseline for a slam to ignite the Beckley crowd and give his team the momentum.
Or so it appeared.
Before the madness in the crowd could simmer, Ammar Maxwell immediately answered with a runner for Shady. Although subtle at the time, Maxwell’s bucket ignited the big run the Tigers had been waiting for all night.
Add in the fact the Tigers amped up the defensive pressure and the game turned on a dime.
“We felt like we could get anything we wanted in transition. That was a big bucket to answer right back,” Olson said. “We had to extend our defense. Not to trap or press, but make it hard on them. We didn’t make it hard on them for two-and-a-half quarters. Once we did, that was our style of basketball.”
After a stop on the other end, Maxwell again attacked the basket for a score that was the final lead change of the night.
“There were two big plays. Both with Ammar,” Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said. “He drove on the left side and we had two guys standing right there and neither one attempted to take a charge. That was big. Then he drove on the right side and we just let him shoot. We have to put him on the foul line, not just let him go in and score.”
With turnovers mounting, Shady looked like a group of sharks in blood infested water.
“We had 16 turnovers, but you have to look at the times when we turned it over. Live ball turnovers killed us,” Kidd said. “Against a team like Shady, a good team that can really play, you can’t turn the ball over. Give them credit because they played the defense to make us turn it over. We have to show more poise, even if we are tired.”
Even when the Tigers did miss during that stretch, the ball seemed to bounce their way. One of the misses found its way in to the hands of Cam Manns at the 3-point line. Manns calmly drilled his fourth long ball of the night to put an exclamation point on the win.
Manns finished the night with a game-high 21 points, knocking down 3-pointers from NBA range.
“He reminds me a lot of myself when I played,” Olson admitted. “He shoots those long, deep, contested 3’s that you don’t really want as a coach, but he has made them at such a high volume that you really can’t really argue against it. He had a couple of big rebounds as well and he hit some big shots. They were keying on some of the other guys, but you can’t play off of us. They did and he was wide open.”
“I love it,” Manns said about the deep bombs. “I feel like the closer I get, I am not going to make it. If I can get deeper, I will make it.”
For 26 minutes, it was anybody’s game Thursday night, but that all changed due to conditioning according to the Beckley coach.
“I always call my guys the iron five, but at the end it showed that our conditioning was not the way it needed to be. That is on me,” Kidd said. “I know we have had some injuries and all, but you still have to come and do something. Even if you can’t practice, you have to get on the exercise bike. Our conditioning wasn’t there and I thought their conditioning was a little better than ours.”
The win for Shady kept its record clean for the senior group who have never lost to Beckley in their high school career.
“This is my last time playing on this floor forever, so I wanted leave here with a good feeling,” Manns said.
SS: 10 17 14 26 – 67
B: 12 15 14 14 – 55
Shady Spring
Braden Chapman 18, Ammar Maxwell 13, Cole Chapman 9, Jack Williams 2, Jaedan Holstein 4, Cam Manns 21. Totals: 27 7-11 67.
Beckley
Coby Dillon 14, Elijah Redfern 21, Zion Hawthorne 4, Braydon Hawthorne 8, Jaylon Walton 8. Totals: 22 6-6 55.
