Legendary plays on the hardwood live forever in small towns across West Virginia.
Wednesday afternoon at the state tournament, Scott’s Recce Carden earned legend status in the town of Madison.
Battling highly favored Logan in the quarterfinal round, Carden hit a last-second shot to stun the No. 2-seeded Wildcats 65-63 in the Class AAA quarterfinals Wednesday at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
No. 7 Scott eliminates No. 2 Logan on this game winner!!! It’s the second straight year the No. 2 seed in Class AAA has lost to No. 7#wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/4yvdISoPNo
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 16, 2022
“So proud of the guys. The first time we have been to the states in nine years and we get paired up with a rival that had beat us three times during the year,” Scott head coach Shawn Ballard said. “These guys trusted in the game-plan and trusted in their development throughout the year of what we have been working towards. To go out there, see it pay off and get it done is special.”
The previous meetings against Logan were not only losses for the Skyhawks, they were ugly losses.
Oddly enough, instead of being a burden, the losses played in Scott’s favor Wednesday.
“There was no pressure on us. They had all the pressure. They were the two-seed and they were supposed to win. We just came out and hit shots,” Carden said.
Carden’s words played out early as the Skyhawks let the Wildcats know, round four would not be like the previous three battles.
“We have got off to some slow starts against those guys and it was a point of emphasis for us,” Ballard said.
Scott raced out to a 22-17 lead after one quarter and led 32-31 at halftime.
Having been a strong third quarter team all year, Logan came out aggressive to start the second half, leading by as many as four points before holding a 48-47 lead with eight minutes to play.
The upset dream for the Skyhawks appeared to fade away when Scotty Browning drilled a 3-pointer for a 57-52 lead with 5:15 to play.
Carden refused to let the Skyhawks fall down the stretch.
Scoring nine straight points over the next four minutes, Carden brought Scott within two points with 1:30 to play before a steal from Isaac Stetser resulted in a driving layup to tie the game at 63 apiece.
“I wasn’t really going to take the shot,” Stetser admitted. “I was looking for Reece. They all ran to him. I saw Scotty (Browning) was on me and he was smaller than me. I took it to the rim and hoped I finished.”
With Logan holding the ball for the final shot, Scott amped up the pressure, creating a turnover with 30 seconds to play.
“A couple of times we got in tough spots where we got trapped. Most teams in that situation are going to try and take advantage of you and trap you to speed you up. They did it,” Logan head coach Zach Green said.
Ballard chose not to call a timeout after the turnover and let the game play out.
“We have lost some games like that early in the year. When it goes that way not everyone is going to congratulate the decision of not calling timeout and setting something up. We trust our players,” Ballard said. “We teach them how to play. We are not going to take the ball out of their hands to set something up. We know in a tie game that we are going to take the last shot. I trust these guys to get into position to execute.”
Green had a good idea where the ball was going at crunch time.
“We had to have a stop. In that situation we really didn’t want Carden to get a clean look,” Green said. “We sent a double at him and he was still able to make the shot. Hats off to him.”
After a slow start, Carden explained how he gained the confidence to hit the game winner.
“Shots really didn’t fall early and I knew I had to get focused. I focused in more on the rim and made shots coming down the stretch,” Carden said. “I knew they were trying to double team me on the last shot. I knew if I drove left on his hip and sped between them I would have a shot to win the game. I just felt it. I shot a few floaters tonight and they didn’t fall. I trusted it and I went back to it.”
The Skyhawks committed just six turnovers in the game, while Logan committed 11 which turned into 19 points for Scott.
“We basically play all guards, so turnovers are big for us. We are not going to out-rebound teams most nights. We try to make up for that by pressuring the ball, forcing some turnovers and taking care of the ball on our end,” Ballard said. “We give these guys space. They can all shoot it. They can all handle it. They can all get to the paint. That allows us to avoid situations where we get trapped and that sort of things. Luckily we took care of the ball tonight.”
The loss was a tough pill to swallow for Logan, who many thought would challenge top-seeded Shady Spring for Class AAA title.
“You have to tip your hat off to Scott High. They made shots tonight and we didn’t execute down the stretch. That was the big difference in the game,” Green said. “We had a little bit of breathing room late in the game and couldn’t get the ball in bounds and didn’t execute. That is what costs us the game.”
Scott advances to Friday’s semifinals where the Skyhawks will meet No. 3 seed Fairmont Senior at 11:15 a.m.
