Gallery by Heather Belcher
Westside found scoring opportunities when it broke Shady Spring’s press Tuesday night.
But those breakdowns were few and far between.
Shady capitalized on 14 Westside turnovers in the first half, generating easier shots in a 70-51 win over the Renegades in the New River CTC Invitational at the Beckley Raleigh County Convention Center.
Neither team took care of the ball particularly well in the first quarter combining for 16 turnovers through the first eight minutes but the Tigers capitalized the most taking 23-9 lead after a quarter, withstanding a pair of Renegade runs.
The first came with Shady leading 28-11 in the opening quarter, threatening to put the game away.
The Renegades responded with a 7-0 run halfway through the second quarter to cut the deficit to 11, and added another run later in the third but never could overcome the early hole.
“We were super sloppy in the first quarter.,” Westside head coach Tom Evans said. “Our guys were all over the court and I told them just now, most of our turnovers were unforced. I mean, they were in a press but they weren’t putting ridiculous ball pressure, just enough. We were a little antsy, a little, you know, amped up I guess and a little nervous and threw the ball away. But after the first quarter everyone got their wits about them and it was a ball game. It was sloppy on both ends but both teams had a lot of turnovers. I think we’re really close to being a really good team. And just to compete with Shady, it just feels good. They beat us pretty good the last couple years and you know, just to have three quarters where it felt like a ballgame was a plus on our side.”
Westside, which never led, came closest to doing so when Kadien Vance tied the game at 2-2. The first run afterwards belonged to the Tigers who ripped an 11-0 stretch with 3s by Gavin Davis and Jalon Bailey highlighting the stretch.
Austin Bishop broke the spell with a trey for the Renegades but the Ammar Maxwell fired back with a pair of layups during a 6-0 run that put Shady up 19-5.
Later in the half following Westside’s spurt that cut the deficit to 11, Shady exploded again. An 11-6 sprint gave Shady a 39-23 advantage at the break, nullifying a half in which Westside converted on 50 percent of its shots (10 of 20).
“I think it was sloppy on our part because the turnovers we committed were not because of something that Westside did, it was something that Shady did and I thought we rushed it,” Shady head coach Ronnie Olson said. “I thought that we always play fast, but we do a good job of taking care of the ball and we turned it over four times last time we played and we had 12 or 13 in the first half tonight but I thought it was just us being not ready to play. I don’t feel like they weren’t excited but they weren’t really engaged. So they came out and we busted them quick and then credit Westside. They kept making runs at us but the one thing I gotta say about an ugly game like that our guys literally played hard the whole game. You never saw a loose ball without us getting on the floor.”
Shady’s lead ballooned to 25 early in the third, triggering Westside’s final run.
Austin Bishop hit the first of three consecutive Renegade 3s, triggering a 9-0 run. Unfortunately for Westside the deficit proved insurmountable as it never trimmed the deficit under 16 points.
“We just fought and fought well,” Olson said. “We get up 20 And they may cut it but we still keep playing. Sometimes, like I tell the guys all the time, no matter what you do sometimes it’s not about what you do. They hit some tough shots, executed a couple times on offense. Teams are gonna shoot well and they’re gonna go out on runs but you’ve got to be able to withstand that and keep going. So I think the theme of our team right now through six games is that. We just keep playing and they’ve shown resiliency and that’s a good word for them right now. Getting down and getting up are two different things, but it’s the same thing because you got to keep playing through the runs you got to keep playing through being down. It was kind of like an NBA game, if you will, where it’s so up and down. You’re going to have teams go on some runs because the possessions were so short and teams get a lot more shots up and that’s what some of those runs came from because we did the exact same thing on the other end. The difference was we would get a couple more stops than them and then push it out again. So credit to our guys. We had balanced scoring and I’m happy with it.”
Ammar Maxwell led Shady and all players with 25 points while Jalon Bailey and Khi Olson added 16 and 14 respectively.
Austin Bishop led Westside with 19 points in the loss.
