Gallery by Karen Akers
Shady Spring – It would’ve been easy for Shady Spring to get caught looking ahead to Saturday’s matchup with Class AAA No. 1 Logan.
Princeton would’ve benefitted from that. Unfortunately for the visitors from Mercer County that was never the case.
Shady scored the first eight points of Thursday night’s contest, placing four players in double figures and defeating Princeton 89-70 in Shady.
While the blowout was in the vein of most of the host Tigers’ games this season, Shady coach Ronnie Olson was beside himself after his team gave up 70 points for the first time since a 77-47 loss to Morgantown last season.
“I don’t know when the last time was that we gave up 70 points,” Olson said. “There’s no 19-point win that changes that. Even if we would’ve won by 30 and had given up 70 points I’d be upset because that’s not the way that we practice the game of basketball. That’s not how we’re going to beat Logan on Saturday. Everyone’s talking about Logan, that’s a good defensive team.
“I didn’t like the effort tonight. I didn’t like the mental makeup either. We addressed it after the game, talked about it, discussed it and we listened to each other. They listened to me and we wrapped it up. We’re going to address it on film and fix it and get ready for Saturday.”
Displeased from the jump, Olson called his first timeout just two possessions into the game, voicing his frustrations while benching starter Ammar Maxwell. After some constructive criticism Maxwell was reinserted into the game and heeded Olson’s words, scoring 17 first-half points for the hosts.
A 3-pointer and a pair of free throws from the sophomore staked Shady to a 8-0 lead before the teams traded a pair of treys. The visitors quickly chipped into the deficit with four straight to make it 11-7 but a 15-5 run to close the quarter, spurred by Maxwell and Chapman, put the hosts firmly in command.
“He kind of got into me because I wasn’t up on defense,” Maxwell said of Olson. “He kind of just got me going and I locked in there.”
“I thought there wasn’t much going on defensively but we got off to a quick start,” Olson said. “When I took that timeout I told them ‘hey, we’ve got to be ready to play.’ We weren’t in anything we went over before the game. That’s why I felt like mentally they just weren’t there tonight. They were there physically and they played hard. Anybody that watched them would say they played pretty hard – got lost on a couple of rotations  – but they played pretty hard. But we were supposed to be pressuring the ball, we were supposed to be up at half court, we were supposed to be more intense and talking and some of them weren’t in stance. I felt like I needed to address that and some of them individually.
“They responded to it for the most part there in the first and second quarters but I will say, and I say this all of the time, but we have a quarter where we just blow people out. There’s really no rhyme or reason and if you chart it it’s usually the third quarter but once we get a team down it’s hard to come back because we’re such a good defensive team. However we gave up a lot of points tonight and we just happened to score a bunch.”
The first quarter proved to mostly be the difference for both teams with Shady holding a five-point advantage over the final final three quarters. That was with Princeton managing foul trouble most of the evening, conceding 33 free throw attempts to the hosts while getting to the line 18 times itself.
The lame-duck quarter was trend Princeton coach Robb Williams has noticed in the team’s five losses this season – all to top-5 teams (Class AA No. 2 Bluefield twice and Class AAA South Charleston).
“Same thing that’s happened to us in all five of our losses,” Williams said. “We’ve gone 13-5 now and all our five losses are top 5 teams in the state. Interestingly in every game that’s how it’s happened. It’s not that we’ve been out-played and dominated forever, it’s one quarter or a quarter-and-a-half. But you’ve got to put them together. They shot the ball very well and they’re a good team. Hat’s off to them and they’re one of the best team’s in the state for a reason. I’ve got nothing but respect for them and they were hitting the shots.”
Kris Joyce and Chase Hancock led Princeton with 18 points each in the loss. Braden Chapman and Ammar Maxwell each scored 24 for Shady, 17 each in the first half, while Cole Chapman pitched in 17.
Shady improves to 17-1 and will host Class AAA No.1 Logan in a showdown of the top two teams in Class AAA on Saturday. Tip-off is slated for 1:30.
Princeton drops to 13-5 and will travel to Beckley on Saturday night.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Some highlights from Shady-Princeton.
Ammar Maxwell converts on a four-point play early pic.twitter.com/LlfdLKvuG4— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) February 18, 2022
P: 12 21 23 14 – 70
3-pointers – P: 8 (Hancock 3, Hurte 2, Joyce 2, Edwards); SS: 8 (B. Chapman 2, C. Chapman, Manns, Maxwell 4).