Charleston – Shady Spring’s used the second half to bury teams this season.
Robert C. Byrd was just the latest to join that graveyard.
Shady opened the third quarter of Wednesday Class AAA quarterfinal clash with a 16-3 run over the first five minutes to secure a 60-43 win over the Eagles Wednesday night in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The win sends the defending champs to the semis for the fifth consecutive season where they’ll face No. 3 Nitro on Friday at 9:30 a.m.
Leading the entire game, Shady struggled to shake Byrd early, leading 25-19 at the intermission. But a steady dose of seniors Khi Olson, Jalon Bailey and Jack Williams served as a remedy for any halftime struggles, finishing with 21 of Shady’s 23 points in the frame.
“Patience,” Shady Spring head coach Ronnie Olson said of the gameplan. “They executed great. It took us awhile to find ourselves and I think they ran their sets right. Everybody has the green light on our team as long as it’s in the context of the offense. I would never want to play for a coach that tells me not to shoot and it took awhile for them to learn I’m not going to tell them that. I’m telling them to be just a little bit smarter on the offensive end and everybody’s going to be able to eat.”
The third quarter was a clinic in efficiency for the Tigers who nailed 71 percent of their shots (10-of-14) in the frame to build a 48-29 lead.
Olson referred to Williams for the rallying cry.
“Win the first four minutes coming out and it’s going to be tough for them to come back,” Williams said.
Khi Olson kicked off the charge with a 3 before Byrd’s Logan Boyce answered to keep pace. The Eagles quickly fell behind from there. A jumper from Williams was sandwiched by a pair from Bailey, giving Shady its first double-digit advantage of the night. A timeout form Byrd couldn’t stop the onslaught as Bailey was money again out of the stoppage with Olson following from downtown again.
Bailey was true again from inside the arc, putting the Tigers ahead 41-22 when the dust settled. He led all scorers with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting in the win.
“I’m big on getting downhill,” Bailey said. “My teammates got me involved.”
The game itself was a shooting clinic for the Tigers. They shot 56 percent from the field (22-of-39) for the game, outclassing the Eagles (32 percent) in that same category. Of those 22 field goals, 18 were assisted on.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be down here seven times,” Byrd head coach Basil Lucas said. “I haven’t seen too many teams shoot over 50 percent from 3-point range for the game, and they hit three of them that were critical in that third period, which I like I said, I think created the separation. And it’s hats off to their kids because they made those shots. it’s a different place to shoot in. The lights are hot out there as we found out.”
Up next for the Tigers is a rematch of last year’s Class AAA semifinals between Nitro and Shady. Shady won that game handily on its way to a title but Olson expects a much more competitive matchup this time around.
“We just want to be given a chance,” Olson said. “That’s all we ask, give us a chance to play another game and Friday is it. So Nitro is gonna be a great game, and it’s gonna be – we expect it to be low, grind-it-out scoring game. So if we can keep them off the glass, that’s gonna be a big part and I know they’re gonna look at things at us, but that’s a good team and we knew that was probably gonna be one of our matchups down the road at state tournament.”
