Gallery by Heather Belcher
Clear Fork – The final 12 seconds of Monday’s Westside-Bluefield matchup seemed to favor the Beavers.
Westside missed a pair of free throws that would’ve extended the lead to four and allowed a clean look at the game-winning 3.
But the final roll favored the Renegades.
Devin Toten’s 3-point attempt with two seconds left rolled off the left side of the rim and Kadien Vance secured the rebound at the buzzer to cement a 60-58 victory for the Renegades in Clear Fork.
Despite leading by 10 points in the first half and connecting on just 5 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter, the hosts were more than happy to snag a pivotal regional win and pull into position to secure one of the top two seeds in the region.
“That’s obviously not the way you want to win but it is,” Westside head coach Nick Cook said. “I told them sometimes you just gotta get lucky. (Bluefield’s) probably the best 0-10 basketball team you’re ever gonna see in the history of West Virginia basketball, you know? They’re not an 0-10 team. They’re a really good team and they’re gonna find their stride and get over that hump and start winning some games, no doubt on my mind. 
So anytime you beat Bluefield, you just take it for what it is – it’s a win and go on to the next one.”
The Renegades had their bright spots throughout the evening that put them in position to win. The brightest was their defense which held Bluefield to 33 percent shooting (21 of 64) from the field. But there were lapses at times as the Beavers remained afloat on the strength of 12 3-pointers.
The biggest life raft came in the third quarter.
Leading 31-27 at the break, Westside opened its advantage up to nine with a 3 from Austin Bishop, kicking off a string of long balls.
Bluefield junior Jase Smith had the answer connecting on three consecutive treys with teammates Devin Toten and Ricky Dunford following suit.
“Coach (Jody) Fuller, he came up with some stuff, some screens for Jase, some double screens,” Bluefield head coach Tony Webster said. “They played little box-and-one on us and we had some good looks. We had a good look right there near the end. 
I thought we had two good looks with Jase and Token.”
The barrage marked a stretch that saw the visitors connect on 5 of 6 3s to open the half, giving them a 45-42 advantage after Smith’s fourth trey of the frame. The well ran dry afterwards as Bluefield connected on just 1 of 9 attempts the rest of the way.
“We tried to switch defenses quite a bit throughout the night,” Cook said. “We definitely switched it after that and we went ahead and and put no help from (Smith), so, you know, we were trying to implement a help and recover type defense. Not really a pack line, but a little bit different than what they’re used to. Usually we always want kids in a help situation. uh, but we took no help from (Smith). So we pretty much just matched up with him, almost like a box-and-one and just kept trying to switch it up on it.”
While the Beavers were content bombing from deep, Westside rode senior Kadien Vance to the finish line.
Of Vance’s 13 points, 10 came in the second half where he went 4 of 7 from the field, splitting a pair of free throws. A free throw from the senior with under three minutes to play brought the Renegades to within a point at 57-56 before his layup off an offensive rebound on the next possession gave them the lead for good.
Utilization of the post proved successful for the Renegades who attempted just one 3 in the final frame while going 4 of 7 from the field overall with just two shot attempts coming outside of the paint. It allowed them to get higher percentage looks at the basket or go to the free throw line, which they did 12 times in the fourth quarter.
“I’ve told the kids we don’t have to just jack it up to begin with,” Cook said. “Let’s go inside out. Let’s go inside and get some buckets. 
They’re gonna collapse, then we’ll kick it out, then we’ll make some 3s. We started doing a better job of that in the fourth quarter.”
Smith finished with a game-high 27 points and 10 rebounds in the loss while Austin Bishop led Westside with 19 points. Vance had 10 rebounds to secure a double-double.
B: 9 18 21 10 – 58
W: 17 14 13 14 – 60
Bluefield
Davion Hickman 12, Jeff King 5, Jack Hurt 2, Ricky Dunford 1, Devin Toten 9, Jase Smith 27, Greyson Parris
Westside
Austin Bishop 19, Kyler Kenneda 4, Bryson Blankenship 6, Kadien Vance 13, Coltin Lester 12, Brayden Waldron 5