Class A Greenbrier West came into Saturday’s matchup with Class AAAA Greenbrier East looking for a splashy win to add to its unbeaten resume.
Early it looked like the Cavs would earn it.
Midway through the first quarter those hopes were promptly squashed.
East overcame and early 6-0 deficit, holding off a West comeback attempt in an 81-68 win over the Cavaliers Saturday afternoon in the New River CTC Invitational at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
The Cavs excelled in the opening minutes of the game but when the Spartans stopped settling for outside shots and turned up their pressure defense, the tide turned.
A 9-2 run gave East its first lead of the game, one that came largely on the back of a defense that forced 10 turnovers in the opening frame.
“It all comes down to how our kids execute,” Greenbrier East coach Jared Patton said. “The first couple of minutes we were settling for a lot of 3s. (West) came out and they executed their offense. We kind of settled in after that but again it just comes down to our squad and our team. We came out to a slow start.”
Trailing 8-5, East’s Aaron Griffith, who scored a team-high 19 points, reeled off back-to-back buckets to put his team ahead but a layup from West’s Michael Kanode reestablished order – temporarily.
A 10-0 run for the Spartans gave them the lead for good as they eventually took an 18-point advantage into the intermission.
“They’re really fast first off,” West head coach Jared Robertson said. “Too fast for us to simulate exactly in a practice. They do a a good job of mixing in three or four different presses and they kept changing and keeping us off balance a little bit. I will say as the game went on I thought our guards grew up and got better with it so we adjusted a little bit. That’s a positive for me.”
The East lead expanded to 21 early in the third when Goose Gabbert canned a 3 but six straight from Brayden McClung later in the frame helped slash the deficit back to 13. The Cavaliers cut it to as many as twelve but five straight from Gabbert late in the quarter helped East maintain a 17-point advantage heading into the final stanza.
Still, West had one last gasp to make a run.
Back-to-back 3s from Chase McClung made it a single-digit deficit for the first time since the second quarter, with the Spartans seeing their lead sink to eight points.
“I was really proud of out kids,” Robertson said. “At halftime I said ‘Guys, we haven’t been faced with adversity like this all year so I wanna see how you respond.’ I think in the second half we played pretty well. It’s hard. This week was hard on us because we prepared for them one day and the weather impacted the next day. We did a good job though. Brayden (McClung) and Chase both made some big shots. Both were aggressive getting to the rim for us.”
With a chance to cut it to five with under two minutes to go the Cavs came up empty as Adam Seams closed the game out at the free throw line.
On the afternoon the Spartans struggled from deep, converting on just four of their 18 three-point attempts but excelled inside the arc. They cashed in on 29 of their 42 two-pointers for a 69 percent conversion clip.
“I think at one time I looked down the bench and said ‘Can anybody tell me what we’re shooting from 3?’ and one of our players said we were 0 for 6,” Patton said. “I said it was time for a timeout and said no more 3s cause we were done with that. I think our ball movement can be well enough at times where we don’t have to settle for 3s. I want them to shoot 3s but I thought we were settling instead of attacking the rim. We switched up our offense so we could do that.”
West drops to 5-1 on the season and will travel to Class A No. 2 James Monroe on Tuesday. East improves to 5-4 and will host Greater Beckley on Tuesday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
GE: 21 25 21 12 – 81
GW: 15 12 22 18 – 68
Greenbrier East
Zach Patton 7, Adam Seams 18, Monquelle Davis 6, Goose Gabbert 14, Aaron Griffith 19, Gabe Patton 2, Kole Withrow 1, Chris Sinclair 1, Kadin Huffman 1, Bryson Brammer 8, Ryan Cole 4.
Greenbrier West
Brayden McClung 18, Chase McClung 22, Kadin Parker 3, Ty Nickell 5, Michael Kanode 14, Elijah Perkins 4, Dale Boone 2
3-point goals – GE: 4 (Gabbert 2, Brammer 2); GW: 8 (B. McClung 2, C. McClung 5, Parker 1).
