Gallery by Karen Akers
All good things must come to an end.
Streaks were made to be broken.
Pick whichever cliche’ you want, but the story line Thursday night was the end of an incredible 54-game home winning-streak for Shady Spring inside Dave Wills Gym.
Riding its “horse”, Jaylon Walton for 20 points in the second half, Beckley knocked off the home-standing Tigers 58-55 in front of a packed house.
“Anybody that watched the game knew the difference in the game was Jaylon Walton,” Shady Spring head coach Ronnie Olson said. “Maybe I could have mixed the defenses up there, but I thought we did a really good job of containing him and sagging in on him. They did a good job of getting him the ball and broke us down a couple of times off the dribble and dumped it to him. When he wasn’t getting dumps, he was getting offensive rebounds and putting them back in. He is a great player.”
Since 2019, Shady Spring had owned the battles with its Raleigh County neighbors. Across the first two quarters Thursday night, it looked like more of the same.
A 10-0 run with the game tied at 5-5 gave the home team the upper hand early before the Flying Eagles cut the lead in half in the opening minute of the second quarter.
The momentum was short lived, however, as the Tigers broke loose on a 12-2 run for a 15-point lead midway through the period.
A basket from Zyon Hawthorne and an old school 3-point play from Preston Clary cut into the lead, but Shady Spring still hit the locker room with a 10-point lead.
In the first half, Walton had scored just four points on limited touches, but that all changed in the third period.
“We went into the locker room and the coaches got on me saying I wasn’t playing hard enough,” Walton said. “I wasn’t posting up hard enough and not getting the ball. I came back out and actually started playing.”
A.J. Thomas opened the third quarter with his only bucket of the contest before Walton scored on a turnaround, left-handed floater.
Then following a free throw from Braedy Johnston, it was Beckley’s turn to make a run which changed the complexion of the battle.
“We went up 15 there and went on a big run in the first quarter-and-a half. They did it in the third,” Olson said. “It was one of our lulls. That’s high school sports and they are high school kids. We are well coached and disciplined and they are great high school basketball players. But, they will have times where things aren’t going to go right. You just have to play through it.”
Six straight points from Walton and a runner off glass from Clary turned the game in Beckley’s favor, and the Flying Eagles never trailed again.
“Our kids just found a way to get (Jaylon) the ball,” Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said. “I thought in the first half that we tried to force it in there and we didn’t throw good passes trying to get it to him. We adjusted in the second half and made some good passes. That was why he was able to score against them.”
The Beckley coach also saw a different mindset from his team in the third quarter.
“I just thought we kind of toughed it out,” Kidd said. “We had kind of been settling for shooting 3’s (in the first half). We attacked the glass and took the ball up strong. I thought that was the difference.”
The Tigers battled back to tie the game for the final time at 36-apiece, but over the first five minutes of the third quarter, the home team converted just two of eight shots from the charity stripe to open the door for the visitors.
“I give my respect to (Beckley) and they played great. They came in here and took it from us, plain and simple,” Olson said. “I will also say it comes down to missed layups and free throws. Through all of the statistics and all the runs, we had the game for the taking. We missed some free throws and how many numerous layups did we miss. Those are things you probably could control and we didn’t. That could have been the difference in the game.”
Another score from Walton to open the final period made it an eight-point game, but the Tigers refused to roll over.
A hard drive from Jalon Bailey garnered an and-1 to cut the lead back to two points with 1:31 to play, but it was answered in kind by Walton to stem the tide.
Snapping the long winning streak was clearly a topic of conversation, but also for Beckley, getting back on the winning track against Shady Spring was a big key.
“It means a lot when you break a streak, but give them credit, they made that streak,” Kidd said. “Shady is a really good program and very well coached. I am just glad it was us that broke the streak since we are so close and in the same county and all.”
“(Breaking the losing streak to Shady Spring) was something that was also on our mind, what was it, seven times now,” Kidd went on to say. “It is kind of a monkey that you want to get off your back and I thought our kids did that tonight. We showed what Beckley basketball is all about.”
B: 9 15 21 13 – 58
SS: 17 14 8 16 – 55
Beckley
Zyon Hawthorne 14, Coby Dillon 5, Preston Clary 8, A.J. Thomas 3, Jaylon Walton 24, Taylor Williams 4. Totals: 23 9-12 58.
Shady Spring
Jack Williams 13, Eli Sexton 5, Brody Radford 4, Khi Olson 9, Jalon Bailey 11, Gabe Short 2, Braedy Johnston 11. Totals: 22 4-11 55.
