Charleston – The last time Bluefield and Wyoming East played, the Warriors toppled the Beavers on their home court at the Brushfork Armory.
Bluefield returned the favor on the state’s biggest stage.
Using crisp execution and screens that freed their cutters for layups, the Beavers took a 36-17 lead into the half, eventually beating their sectional foes 65-45 Friday afternoon in the Class AA quarterfinals at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The Beavers were relentless early, attacking the paint and it paid dividends. East all-stater Tanner Whitten picked up two quick fouls less than three minutes into the game, forcing him to sit. Fellow big man Chandler Johnson suffered the same fate but stayed in, picking up his third foul shortly after.
From there it was free game for Bluefield, which outscored East 50-16 in the paint.
“We struggled early,” East head coach Derek Brooks said. “We got in foul trouble early and we couldn’t contain Hairston in the paint. I think that was the story of how the game was played. They out-scored us 50-16 in the paint and that’s the ballgame there.”
A 3-pointer from Ja’eon Flack and a layup from R.J. Hairston staked Bluefield to a 5-0 lead before the Warriors answered back with a layup from Cole Lambert and a 3 from Tucker Cook that made it 6-5 with a Flack free throw keeping the score in favor of the Warriors.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, Flack’s free throw came on the back of Whitten’s second foul, delegating him to the bench.
Another 5-0 spurt from Bluefield put the Beavers up 11-5 and it was during that stretch Johnson was tacked with his third foul of the half. Neither Whitten nor Johnson saw the court until after the intermission.
“Most definitely,” Brooks said when asked if Johnson’s third was the reason he kept Whitten on the bench with two fouls. “We have to have Tanner. He’s been our go-to guy all year and got two fouls within the first what, two-and-a-half, three minutes? We couldn’t afford to get his third there early in the first and then once Chandler picked up his third we couldn’t have them both with three going into the second half.”
Tanner Cook and Garett Mitchell countered with their own 5-0 run to make it 11-10 but without a veteran inside presence the Beavers found their way to the rack as evidenced by two Caleb Fuller layups within the final 28 seconds of the first quarter.
The assault on the rim continued in the second with the Beavers winning the battle in the paint 12-2, limiting East to just two made field goals.
With the Warriors staggering, the Beavers delivered a crucial blow with a six straight points in the final 21 seconds of the half, three of them coming on a Will Looney 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The Warriors kept pace in the second half but so did the Beavers, executing their offense with cuts and screens freeing them up for layup after layup. It was part of the reason for a 57-percent showing from the floor for Bluefield.
“My coaches were calling it out from the sideline and we made different adjustments each time,” Bluefield coach Buster Large said, “They were in man to man and they do a lot of switching and we worked on our screens yesterday. Our screens had to be tight and they had too be sturdy and they were. we got a lot of back doors, a lot of slants off the penetration and anytime you can get going downhill off your offense there’s a lot of different things that can happen.”
Flack led all players with 19 points while R.J. Hairston secured a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Tucker Cook led East with 13 points and 10 rebounds in his final game as a Warrior.
“We actually kind of liked (the matchup) going in because most teams come in here and don’t know what to expect from the other team they’re play,” Brooks said. “They usually have to watch film and watching film is different than seeing somebody in person. So we kind of knew what we were up against. We know what they do and they know what we do and we kind of liked that matchup going in, it just didn’t fare well for us tonight.”
East finishes the season 13-12 while Bluefield improves to 20-5 and will play the winner of St. Marys-Braxton County on Friday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
