Shady Spring’s defensive philosophy has been to wear on teams until they fall apart.
That strategy worked to perfection Wednesday in the Little General Battle for the Armory.
The Tigers outscored Huntington St. Joe 30-7 in the fourth quarter beating them 88-53 in the Burger King championship at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
For the game the Tigers forced 29 turnovers and while the Irish had success early in the fourth, cutting the deficit to eight, a 13-1 Shady run helped put the game away.
“I think we went up by about 18 early but it’s our style of play,” Olson said. “You can go all the way back to last year. We just wear on people. We just keep coming at you. I think we just keep pushing the ball and turning you over, eventually we’re going to wear you down. I think that happened there in the third quarter and they made some tough shots. I like that they made a run at us there and we answered. They threw a couple of haymakers and there we were responding. I think it started tonight with Cole and Braden (Chapman) on the ball.
“They’re tough. They shoot a lot of deep 3s and they’re hard to guard sometimes but they just did a masterful job on the ball. They didn’t come out once so I knew they had to be tired but I think to wear them down we started to get what we wanted on offense.”
While the Chapman twins excelled on defense, offense was a different story for the first-team all-staters. The duo combined for just six points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field but a trio of teammates helped picked up the slack.
It started with sophomore Ammar Maxwell, who scored nine of his 19 points in the opening frame, following Tuesday’s 16-point outing with another solid effort. Junior Cameron Manns, after struggling the previous night, carried his weight as well, splashing in 10 points in the first half.
“Honestly, those three between Cam, Sam (Jordan) and Ammar, if we can get that out of them and rotate them in and out, we’re going to be hard to beat,” Olson said. “Cam showed up tonight, Ammar showed up, Sam showed up and we needed that. I’m proud of Cam for stepping up and he played well offensively. When he goes on offense he goes on defense as well so we’re going to need more and that consistency. I also liked the team camaraderie. They were all happy for each other when they were coming in and out of the game. I think that speaks volumes for the character of our team and that will go a long way when we play in March.”
The efforts from Shady’s supporting cast, as well as a defense that trapped relentlessly and forced 15 first-half turnovers, helped the Tigers to a 33-21 advantage at the break.
“They are a very well-coached defensive team,” St. Joe coach Todd Maynard said. “They’ve got athletes that are long. Their guys are about 6-foot-3 and just go up and we handle the ball well, but we’re smaller. Those guys get out and they pressure, pressure, pressure. Their length bothered us tonight but we shouldn’t have even been in the game. You can’t win basketball with that many turnovers. I’d rather shoot 29 half court shots. There’s a chance of one going in, but they ran a packline defense tonight. They knew we could dribble drive and beat them to the paint but it’s like every one of them had a foot in the paint. We couldn’t execute.”
That lead swelled to as many as 15 points following a 3-pointer from Cole Chapman to open the half but an 11-6 run, sparked by the play of Philip Ignatiadis, slashed the deficit back to seven. Maxwell and Cole Chapman were there to answer the call, canning back to back triples to restore order.
The pair of triples from Chapman were a highlight of the bounce back half the junior point guard had. He scored 14 of his 21 points in the third quarter, helping cushion the lead before the fourth-quarter jolt sealed the deal.
“He just likes to put daggers in people,” Olson said of Chapman. “He likes to put it away. He understands that the first half, for the most part is going to be a grind. You’re feeling each other out and I think he likes putting the pressure down on people and he steps up because he knows the third quarter is important. You don’t want to be in a dogfight in the fourth quarter and that comes back to his basketball IQ. I really believe he knows that and knows we’ve got to go in the third quarter. He was the catalyst for that tonight.”
Manns, after scoring just two points in Tuesday’s win over Cabell Midland, bounced back to lead all scorers with 22 points in the win. Jesse Muncey and Zavian Johnson led the Irish with 19 points each.
Shady improves to 5-1 and will play Independence on Friday in the New River Invitational at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.