By Sean McNamara
RACHEL – Both the Winfield Generals and the North Marion Huskies battled through some early season woes from the floor Saturday in Rachel, but late free throws and clutch shots by the visitors from Winfield helped give the Generals a 41-38 season-opening win.
It was the Huskies who came out firing early on, taking a 15-5 lead after the first quarter thanks to a pair of 3s by Cole Morris, a triple by Landon Frey and two early baskets by Harley Sickles in the post.
The Generals hit just 2-of-11 shots in that first quarter, both by Cody Griffith, who scored a 3 and a 2 in the frame.
The second quarter saw both teams experience early season woes as the Generals had no field goals in the period with their only points coming on free throws by Will Rice and Tanner Laughery, who each knocked down one from the line.
North Marion, too, struggled from the field with just two made shots in the quarter, which came from Preston Williams and Cole Malnick.
At the break with North Marion leading 20-7, the Generals had just the two made field goals and were 2-of-28 from the floor, including 1-of-11 from behind the arc.
“I thought we guarded the ball pretty well,” North Marion coach Steven Harbert said. “They took a lot of 3s and weren’t making them. Some of that’s on them. Some of that’s on us actually guarding the ball really well.”
“We’ve shot the ball really well in the preseason, but they guarded and were really physical for us,” Winfield coach Travis Tarr said. “We knew how strong and physical they were coming into the game. At the end of the day, we just weren’t making shots. There was a lid on that thing. We got good looks.”
After scoring just seven points in the opening two quarters, the Generals recorded 16 in the third quarter, going 6-of-11 from the floor with Griffith scoring twice and Tanner Laughery, Toby Laughery and Jaxson Cunningham all hitting from the floor.
“I told them at halftime, ‘guys, we’ve got the looks we need. Keep shooting. If we miss 30 more of them, we miss 30 more of them, but they’re going to start falling,’” Tarr said. “We made an adjustment to get a little more physical in the paint with them. It turned out in our favor at that point.”
As Winfield began to find its stride from the floor, North Marion struggled to find consistent offense, making just two shots in the period and seeing its lead trimmed to two, 25-23, heading into the fourth.
Factoring into the limited shot attempts – North Marion attempted just seven field goals in the third quarter – was the slow pace of the game that saw both teams forced to operate out of the half court with few opportunities to run.
“We don’t want to play that way,” Harbert said. “They decided to give token pressure to slow us up. I don’t want to play slow. I think that takes away some of our strengths, but if you want to play in Charleston, you have to be able to play both ways. If a team slows you down you have to be able to play in the halfcourt. There are times tonight when we didn’t execute. In the whole second half, we didn’t execute very well.”
In the fourth quarter, both teams began to get things going.
With 4:03 left to play, the Generals took their first lead thanks to a pair of free throws by Toby Laughery to put Winfield up, 28-27.
Back-to-back triples by Malnick put North Marion back ahead, 33-32, but the lead was short-lived as an and-one conversion by Griffith with just over two minutes remaining put Winfield up, 35-33, and the Generals would not relinquish the lead the rest of the way.
Helping seal the 41-38 victory were four free throws by Drew Dillard and a pair of free throws by Tanner Laughery, all of which came in the final minute.
At the conclusion of the game, North Marion made two more shots from the floor than Winfield, held advantages in assists and rebounds, but the Generals made 10 more free throws than the Huskies, which proved to be the difference in the game.
Griffith led Winfield with 16 points while Toby and Tanner Laughery contributed nine and five points, respectively. Ross Musick posted a team-best eight rebounds and four steals in the win.
Next up for the Generals will be a home game Tuesday against Sissonville and Tarr hopes to see his team continue to show the fight it did on Saturday in Rachel.
“Our guys came out and they didn’t quit,” Tarr said. “We’re a physical team, and we wanted to show our toughness tonight because we needed to. We had some guys who stepped up to the call.”
Sickles tied with Morris for the team-high in scoring with 10 while also pulling down a game-high nine rebounds.
For North Marion, a road trip next week to Chapmanville awaits, and while his team lost on Saturday, Harbert was still pleased with various aspects of his squad’s performance.
“Our effort was great tonight,” Harbert said. “It’s not all negative. I thought our energy was pretty good. I saw some things out of some guys that I wanted to see tonight. When we go to Chapmanville I’ve got a few more guys that we’re going to play, as well.”
Winfield 41 North Marion 38
Winfield (1-0)
Cody Griffith 6 1-1 16, Toby Laughery 1 7-9 9, Tanner Laughery 1 3-4 5, Ross Musick 2 0-0 4, Drew Dillard 0 4-4 4, Jaxson Cunningham 1 0-0 2, Will Rice 0 1-2 1.
North Marion (0-1)
Harley Sickles 4 2-5 10, Cole Malnick 3 2-2 10, Cole Morris 2 0-0 6, Landon Frey 2 0-0 5, Preston Williams 1 2-2 4, Casey Minor 1 0-2 3.
WIN;; 5;2;16;18;;41
NM;;15;5;5;13;;38
3-Pointers: NM 6 (Morris 2, Malnick 2) WIN 3 (Griffith 3).