Gallery by Tina Laney
One characteristic has remained constant for the Shady Spring boys basketball team under head coach Ronnie Olson.
For 32 minutes, the Tigers will be in your face on defense and challenge you with a high octane offense.
The question becomes, can teams answer the bell from the opening whistle?
Friday night, Greenbrier East could not match the early intensity inside the Tiger den.
When the final horn sounded, Class AAA No. 2 Shady Spring had controlled the game early and held strong for a 76-57 win over the Spartans.
“That was what I was more proud of than anything. We started up strong on them and the lead never really dwindled down,” Olson said. “I felt like it stayed in the 16-25 point range the rest of the night. Even through foul trouble and injuries, for our bench to help keep the lead going up made me very happy.”
After Greenbrier East scored the first point of the game, the home team ran off 11 straight points for a double digit lead in the first two-and-a-half minutes of play.
Spartans head coach Jared Patton had made the early Shady Spring intensity a point of emphasis, but did not see the type of intensity needed from his team to match the Tigers.
“Absolutely not. We talked about that the last couple of days. Anytime you play Shady, they have one style of ball that they play,” Patton said. “If you don’t match (that energy), you are in trouble early. That is what happened to us. We just didn’t execute. You have to execute.”
With the lead still at 10 points later in the quarter, Shady Spring pushed the advantage to 26-9 at the end of the quarter on seven straight points from Ammar Maxwell.
A steal and ensuing layup from Jack Williams midway through the second quarter increased the lead to 22 points, but Williams injured his hip on the play and did not return.
Add in the fact that Maxwell was battling foul trouble, things could have gone south for the Tigers missing two of their best players.
“I use the word opportunity,” Olson said. “It is all about are you going to take advantage of it or not. They did that tonight and that is what a good team does.”
The players that kept the Shady Spring machine clicking in the second quarter were Brody Radford, Braedy Johnston and Jalon Bailey, who had missed three days with an illness.
In the second quarter, Bailey scored six points, while Radford and Johnston added four each which helped the Tigers build a 42-18 lead at the break.
As far as halftime speeches go, Patton felt it was better to stay outside the locker room.
“I told them I wasn’t going in the locker room. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have anything good to say, so I kept it to myself.” Patton said. “Peyton (DeHaven) and Gabe (Patton) got them fired up. You have to play four quarters and that is one thing Shady does really well. Every possession, they play well and seldom do they make mistakes on possessions like we make throughout the game.”
The Spartans did come out firing in the second half, cutting the lead back to 16 points on two occasions, but a score and a stickback from Maxwell and a stickback from Johnston stopped the run in its tracks.
Maxwell fouled out late in the third quarter, but the Tigers maintained their advantage down the stretch aided by eight points from senior Gavin Davis in the final eight minutes.
“That’s what seniors are supposed to do. Things are not going to go your way every night. Even with our lead, a couple of guys weren’t themselves tonight. Gavin did a good job of stepping up and being vocal,” Olson said. “Some of the guys that didn’t play as well in the first half, came back and played well in the second half. Khi (Olson) and Gavin played great in the second half. It is all about playing a complete game and battling through the ups and downs.”
Patton felt like the game plan against Maxwell worked, but the early deficit was too much to overcome.
“We had a good game plan on Maxwell. He is a great player. We studied him a little bit and it worked out. We got him in foul trouble early and that was part of the game plan,” Patton said. “You can’t be down 25 or 30 at the half and expect to win. We had a decent second half, but we still counted 11 layups that we missed in the second half. You miss it (on our end), it is a layup on the other end. We can’t have that. You have to convert on (layups) and keep the turnovers down. You have to do the little things.”
GE: 9 9 20 19 – 57
SS: 26 16 15 19 – 76
Greenbrier East
Don Penn 4, Brody Hamric 10, Peyton DeHaven 11, Nathan Dixon 6, Reed McGraw 6, Gabe Patton 15, Layne Lambert 3, Jakob Tomlinson 2.
Shady Spring
Jack Williams 9, Ammar Maxwell 17, Brody Radford 6, Gavin Davis 13, Khi Olson 2, Jalon Bailey 16, Eli Jordon 2, Braedy Johnston 11.
