Saturday afternoon’s showdown between the two best teams in Class AAA – Shady Spring and Logan -unfolded differently than you’d anticipate a matchup between two top teams would.
Shady took a double-digit lead in the third quarter and never looked back on its way to a 69-50 victory.
Here’s what I noticed.
- Shady Spring coach Ronnie Olson has built his program on defense and has continuously reaped the fruits of his labor. Saturday was a reinforcement of that. The Tigers guarded Logan the full 94 feet, making life difficult for the Wildcats’ talented backcourt duo of Scotty Browning and Garrett Williamson. That was none more so evident than in the half court where the Tigers consistently mugged their guests. An advantage of playing full-court man-to-man is it can crowd the ball-handler’s vision, making the task of executing half court sets much more difficult. It wore on the Wildcats as they committed 10 turnovers in the first half and ultimately shot just 34 percent from the field. Perhaps the strongest indicator of how well the Tigers played on defense is the fact they were scoreless over the first five minutes of the second quarter yet still managed to maintain a lead.
- Braden Chapman is Shady’s most talented scorer, but he’s had trouble getting his shot to fall for most of the season. He’s broken out of that slump over the last two weeks but struggled again on Saturday, going 3 of 16 from the floor. That didn’t seem to matter. In five years of doing this he’s probably one of the best, if not the best, defensive player I’ve seen at the high school level and Saturday was his signature game. From his defensive stance to his ability to wall off Logan’s guards, he was all over the place. He only scored 10 points but you wouldn’t have been able to tell with how active he was.
- Jaedan Holstein has had an all-state caliber campaign and Saturday did little to indicate otherwise. In fact it would be hard to argue there are 16 players in the classification better than him and that’s in a year where Class AAA is probably the best of the four classes. Holstein’s 16-point, 15-rebound effort propelled the Tigers as they pulled away in the fourth quarter. Primarily a rim protector and rebounder last season, he’s evolved into a player that works well with twin all-staters Braden and Cole Chapman. Both love to penetrate and score at the rim and Holstein benefits greatly from their misses. He corralled nine offensive rebounds on Saturday and scored six straight at one point, helping Shady turn a 12-point lead into an 18-point advantage.
- Kudos to Logan coach Zach Green for working to reschedule this game after it was snowed out in January. It would’ve been easy for the Wildcats to say they were full and take a December win over Shady into the postseason without risking the possibility of losing seeding should they make the state tournament. Saturday’s loss likely means they’ll be the two seed should both squads win all the way to Charleston. Despite the setback it likely benefits the Wildcats in the long run. They played four games this week and have suited up 10 times in the last 14 days. That’s a good simulation for the state tournament where teams either play three games in four days or on three consecutive days. This loss will sting but prepare the Wildcats for when it matters.
- I thought the atmosphere was terrific. Shady has always had one of the better turnouts locally and the Logan faithful have a tradition of showing up for big games. After all, the Wildcats’ 1990 semifinal game against Beckley still holds the state tournament attendance record with 13,050 fans in attendance that night. From the JV game to the varsity game, the hype delivered.
- Even after the loss to Logan in December I voted Shady No. 1 in my AP poll vote every week this season and have continued to do so. I believe winning a state championship last year and returning four starters, including a pair of first-team all-staters, from that team means something. I also thought Shady played poorly at Logan. Only two players scored more than four points in their December meeting with first-team all-stater Cole Chapman producing just two. There’s also the fact starting point guard Jack Williams tore his ACL in the first half of that game and the Tigers weren’t able to adjust on the fly in a historically difficult venue. It wasn’t to be disrespectful to Logan, which had a strong case for the No. 1 spot in the classification and likely still does with a difficult schedule. It was a sign of respect for what this group of Tigers have accomplished. The six players that saw heavy minutes Saturday were key components on a team that trailed by eight points in the state title game last season and ultimately won by double digits. Sure, that was last year but all of these kids were underclassmen and arguably arrived a year ahead of schedule. With Williams out the roles changed and this group rolled with the punches. Saturday’s showing – where four starters scored in double figures – is the Shady team I’ve seen on a consistent basis, regardless of the level of competition.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Here's what I did with my votes on the boys side#wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/Fc7E2X604P
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) January 3, 2022