Charleston – Greater Beckley had the advantage in the paint against Tug Valley.
The Panthers had the advantage on the perimeter.
Defending Class A state champion Tug Valley nailed nine 3-pointers, shooting 42 percent (9-of-21) from distance in a 71-63 victory over the Crusaders in the Class A semifinals Friday night in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The win sends the top-seeded Panthers to the Class A title game where they’ll face the winner of Tucker County-Eats Hardy on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
With the Crusaders trailing by nine points at the break, they harnessed the height advantage of 6-foot-7 center Drew Fitzwater to perfection. The senior opened the half on a personal 7-0 run with a jumper by Keegan Davidson tying the game at 31.
The Panthers followed by forcing turnovers and incinerating the nets from deep. Carson Newsome broke the tie for good with a 3 while Ashton Davis nailed a pair from the corner to launch the assault.
“We come into the locker room and all of a sudden it wasn’t the first half and they got right back into it,” Tug head coach Garland “Rabbit” Thompson said. “Thankfully Ashton Davis absolutely caught on fire and carried us and I’m so thankful for him. Glad to see him have that type of game.”
For Greater Beckley the formula of feeding Fitzwater was the right idea as he finished 11-of-12 from the field with a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds but too much of a good thing became a bad thing with Tug jumping entry passes and getting out in transition. In total the Panthers finished with 13 points off of turnovers in the second half.
“We wanted to (feed Fitzwater) and drew shot 11-of-11 in the paint,” Greater Beckley head coach Justin Arvon said. “I think maybe it was so concerted that we were throwing it when he wasn’t there at times and it really ended up hurting. It got them out on some transition breaks there when they got up 15.”
Tug led for the entirety of the game minus the short period when it was tied. That was largely powered by a 9-1 start that immediately put the Crusaders in catch-up mode. They effectively did so, on the back of Fitzwater but struggled to find efficient offense outside the paint.
Trailing 48-37 after three, Greater Beckley quickly watched its hopes of victory sink. Davis opened the fourth quarter with a 3, answered by Kash Hendrix. Tug’s onslaught continued with Davis netting another try and Kaden Hale following with another, pushing the score to 57-40.
The Crusaders were able to slash the deficit back to six at 67-61 with 56 seconds left but came no closer.
“They’re used to being here and they shot the ball well,” Arvon said of Tug. “Nine-of-21 from the 3-point line. You’re shooting that, you’re gonna win a lot of ball games, especially here. We were 5-of-20, we went in knowing where our success was gonna be. It was gonna be in the paint. We were gonna hit 3s on kick-outs.
“When we got kick-outs, that’s when we hit them. We hit a couple tough ones. Keegan made some tough ones there in the end, trying to pull back in. Drew scored well, Eli (Gunter) hit one, Kash (Hendrix) hit a big one. We didn’t hit enough.”
Davdison was the only other Crusader to score in double figures with 12 points, adding seven assists.
Davis led Tug with 21 points while Braydun Ferris netted 20.
