Fairlea – With 14.1 seconds left, the chants of “This is our house!” rang from the Greenbrier East student section through the stuffy, packed gym at Greenbrier East Friday night.
Beckley’s Maddex McMillen is now on the lease.
The senior guard canned a corner 3-pointer with under three seconds left to deliver the Flying Eagles a 66-65 win over Greenbrier East.
Maddex McMillen calls game.
Final
Beckley 66, Greenbrier East 65#wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/hKFk2PPnUL— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) December 18, 2021
“I heard it and I blocked it out,” McMillen said of the chants. “I told myself before it happened, I said ‘I’m going to win this game.’ I think there were 14.1 seconds left and I said it. I did but it came with Elijah’s (Redfern) pass and I just hit the shot. It was great.”
Both Redfern and McMillen were the stars of the evening for the Flying Eagles but both looks turns sharing the spotlight. Early it was McMillen who shined, scoring 16 points in the first half while Redfern, the team’s starting point guard, spent most of the second quarter on the bench in foul trouble.
Before he found his seat on the sideline he was integral in a Beckley assault that resulted in the visitors racing to a 12-3 lead in the opening minutes of the game. Eight of those 12 points came courtesy of McMillen who had the early stroke but once Redfern picked up his second foul the lead quickly dissipated.
Six first-quarter points from junior Adam Seams helped slash the deficit to 16-13 but McMillen had an answer, canning back to back 3s for his team in the first two minutes of the second quarter.
“We were just getting the ball out and running in the beginning of the game,” Beckley coach Ron Kidd said. “I think maybe I changed the momentum when I subbed but we’ve got to get guys in to see what they’re going to do. I’ll take the blame for changing the momentum but give East all the credit in the world. They played their butts off. Seams and Gabbert and some of those other guys – they can play! They always seem to get up for us but they can play with anybody.”
Late in the first Redfern exited and the turnovers cascaded.
Without their floor general, the Flying Eagles turned the ball over nine times in the second quarter allowing Seams and Bryson Brammer to dice them.
Seams scored five points in the quarter, stealing two passes while Brammer was a sniper from long range, canning two 3-pointers and scoring eight points in the quarter. What was once a nine-point lead quickly turned into a 34-26 deficit for the visitors.
“In the second quarter (Redfern) wanted to go back in but I was nervous for him,” Kidd said. “I take the blame. Maybe I should’ve put him in. When we get in foul trouble maybe we need to put a zone in to help them. But I kept him out because I was worried. I didn’t want him to get his third foul early. We really would’ve been in trouble. I probably should’ve put him back in once they went on that roll.”
The Flying Eagles closed the half on their own 5-0 run to shrink the deficit heading into the break but a motivated Redfern made the difference in the second half.
He scored 10 points in the third quarter and 13 straight for the Flying Eagles between the third and fourth quarters to help get them within a point.
“I just knew I had to play careful on defense and I had to show up for my team,” Redfern said. “We were getting a lot of turnovers and we picked that up. We got stops on defense and from there it just came natural. I hit a lot of foul shots too to get myself warm.”
Still the Spartans had their own counterpunch.
A 9-1 run put them up 59-50 but a jumper from McMillen and a 3-pointer from Sam Peck helped slash the deficit to four. Afterwards the little plays added up. Elijah Waller came up with a diving steal that led to a Keynan Cook layup and an offensive foul called against East gave the Flying Eagles the ball back, leading to the tying jumper from Redfern.
Elijah Redfern for the tie. Beckley ball tied 63-63 with 35 seconds left.#wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/gZsAJkhI2n
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) December 18, 2021
East’s Aaron Griffith drew a foul on the following possession and calmly nailed both free throws with 14.1 seconds left, setting the stage for McMillen’s heroics. Redfern set it up, parlaying his hot half by drawing in the defense and kicking it to McMillen who flared to the corner for an open look on the game-winner.
“We have a play where Keynan fakes the pick and I come up and get the ball at the top of the key and swing it,” McMillen said. “I just faked up, got a pick to go to the corner and they helped off Elijah and I was open in the corner to make the shot.”
“That’s what we drew up in the huddle so that was the plan,” A smiling Redfern said.
Afterwards Kidd gave the credit to assistant coach Mike Fowlkes.
“That was a great play by Mike,” Kidd said. “He had that one drawn up and the kids executed it well. I’ve got to give the kids and the assistant coaches a lot of credit.”
McMillen led all scorers with 25 points on 10 of 14 shooting from the field. Redfern was the only other Flying Eagle in double figures with 17 points. Seams led the Spartans with 15 points and six steals while Griffith added 11 points.
The Flying Eagles open the season at 1-0 and will return to action on Tuesday when they host Bluefield. Greenbrier East drops to 1-3 and will host Radford, Va. on Saturday.
Email: tylerjckson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Beckley: 16 15 15 20 – 66
GE: 13 21 13 18 – 65
Beckley (1-0)
Keynan Cook 8, Maddex McMillen 25, Mike Miller 2, Sam Peck 6, Elijah Redfern 17, Jaylon Walton 6
Greenbrier East (1-3)
Zach Patton 6, Adam Seams 15, Monquelle Davis 4, Goose Gabbert 9, Aaron Griffith 11, Gab ePatton 3, Kaiden Huffman 7, Bryson Brammer 10
3-point shooting – B: 8 (McMillen 5, Peck 2, Redfern 1); GE: 5 (Seams 1, Gabbert 1, Patton 1, Brammer 2).
