Gallery by Heather Belcher
New Richmond – Success in the postseason is often tied to patience and great defense.
It also helps to make a few shots.
Friday night, Wyoming East was the master of all three winning components to defeat county rival Westside 50-27 in the opening round of Class AA Region 3, Section 2 play.
The Warriors will now play Bluefield Tuesday night in the sectional championship game at the Brushfork Armory.
“That is what we preached coming into the game tonight,” Wyoming East head coach Derek Brooks said. “We figured they would play zone. The last time we played them (in Clear Fork) we forced shots because we were semi-open. I told them, there is no shot clock in high school basketball. We are going to pass it around until we can get a good look.”
Although the Warriors trailed 9-6 after one quarter, the home team had already set the tone for the pace of play for the game.
“They did a good job of that early, even though we didn’t score a lot. We stayed patient early in the second quarter, got the shots we wanted and knocked them down,” Brooks said. “We wanted to get in that middle. When you can get in the middle of the zone, it is tough to stop it. I thought we did a good job of that early in the second quarter. Then we pushed it out and got those open looks.”
Zach Hunt hit a jumper to open the second quarter which was followed by a score inside from freshman Konnor Fox off an assist from standout guard Cole Lambert.
Braxton Morgan split the Westside zone with a jumper in the lane before senior Bryson Huff drilled a kick-out 3-ball thanks to an offensive rebound from Hunt.
“Over at Westside they were in a 2-3 (zone) and we were rushing shots a lot,” Lambert said. “The first possession we had the ball for about two minutes and took a horrible three from outside. Coach told us to just slow it down and get what we want. Get in the middle and get open shots.”
A banked in 3-ball from sophomore Braxton Waldron snapped the run, but those were the only points the visitors could manage in the second period.
A triple from Lambert and a stickback from Fox gave the Warriors a 20-12 lead at the break.
Westside head coach Thomas Evans talked about how the pace of play effected his team Friday night.
“We looked nothing like we did all season,” Evans lamented. “We were hesitant on shots that we had taken all year. We were driving on plays that we never drive on and were taking contested shots that just weren’t us.”
“We had a gameplan that we thought was going to be effective, but they were just so hesitant,” Evans went on to say. “I think 100 percent it was the pace. We were getting so frustrated with them taking two minutes off the clock every time they had the ball.”
Morgan cashed in on a bucket to open the second half with an assist from Huff for the first double-digit lead of the game.
Waldron nailed his third 3-pointer of the game to cut the deficit back to seven points, but it was false hope for the Renegades.
Patience and crisp ball movement finally took its toll on the Westside zone and East erupted on an 11-0 run to take control of the game.
“We have been playing pretty well here recently and we have been buckling down on defense,” Lambert said. “We have had good practices and coming into the game tonight, we were all fired up for this. We felt like last time we let that one slip away from us. We knew this was it tonight and we had a chip on our shoulders from last game.”
Brooks felt like the 49-44 regular season loss at Westside was an anomaly for his club.
“I think we were a combined two-for twenty-something at Westside. I told the guys coming in that we were not going to shoot the ball that bad again. That is a once-in-the-season thing for any team. We have shooters on our team and we normally shoot the ball much better than we did down there. It showed tonight,” Brooks said. “We got shots from Huffy and shots from Zach. Zach has been struggling, but I don’t think he missed one tonight. We needed a night like this where we saw some shots fall.”
The run was jump-started by Lambert who penetrated and found Fox coming in along the baseline. The big man’s dunk caused an eruption from the Wyoming East faithful which threw gasoline on the hometown fire.
Back-to-back triples from Hunt and a corner 3-ball from Huff capped the run for a 33-15 lead as the clock ticked under a minute to play in the third period.
Huff ended the night as the leading scorer with 14 points and Hunt added 11 points.
“I think it was the best game for him this year. I knew it was coming and I have faith in him all the time,” Lambert said about his fellow senior. “Zach had been struggling too, but he had a great practice yesterday. He was hitting shots and I told him he was going to be back tonight. It definitely was our patience that was the key. Moving the ball and getting (Westside) tired. They weren’t getting out on our shooters. We got the ball in the corner quite a bit, so it was all about being patient.”
A score from Bryson Blankenship for Westside was followed by another long ball strike from Huff.
When Lambert launched an off-balance 3-pointer to beat the buzzer, the ball hit nothing but net to put East up 39-17.
While Lambert only scored eight points, he seemingly had his hands in all 50 points, controlling the game for the Warriors.
“He is a true point guard and you could really see that tonight. A lot of people have seen him score a lot this year, but that is what we have had to have from him to be successful,” Brooks said. “He can switch gears. If teams are focusing on him, he will facilitate and distribute the ball around. He did a great job of that tonight.”
Before leaving the game early in the fourth period after a hard foul send him to the ground and then to the bench, the freshman big man inside had scored eight points and had eight blocks to frustrate Westside in the paint.
“Konnor played good defense and played good perimeter defense on (Westside big man) Bryson (Blankenship),” Brooks said. “Bryson can shoot it out there and can move a little bit. Konnor did a great job of sitting down and guarding tonight.”
Coming into the game, Evans rolled the dice and decided to force the ball out of Lambert’s hands and live with the outcome.
“I talked to (Wyoming East assistant head coach) Herbie (Brooks) going through the handshake line and he just simply said, we made shots. That was how we were going to play them,” Evans said. “We were going to take the ball out of Cole’s hands and make other people shoot it. Huff and those guys knocked down some shots. That is the game you play and the risk you take playing a team like them. I give them credit, they knocked them down at the worst possible time for us.”
W: 9 3 5 10 – 27
WE: 6 14 19 11 – 50
Westside
Austin Bishop 4, Braxton Waldron 9, Bryson Blankenship 2, Kaiden Vance 2, Brayden French 2, Kyler Kenneda 7, Colten Lester 7, Jacob Mullins 1.
Wyoming East
Cole Lambert 8, Zach Hunt 11, Bryson Huff 14, Braxton Morgan 6, Konnor Fox 8, Brayden Hoosier 2, Corey Hall 1.
