Fairlea – Greenbrier East has buzzed through the regular season, dropping just one contest – a loss to defending state champion Nitro – along the way.
The Spartans are hoping that number remains at one by Saturday evening.
After a roaring win over Nicholas County in the Class AAA Region 3 co-final, East punched its ticket to the state tournament for the second consecutive year, aiming to build off of last year’s appearance.
A squad comprised mostly of juniors and sophomores, East struggled last year against a Morgantown team that finished as the state runner-up. The good news? Due to a reclassification, the Spartans dropped to an open Class AAA and have been amongst the classification’s top teams, splitting with Nitro.
The first step to standing atop the Class AAA mountain is defeating a Sissonville team that won the other Region 3 co-final last week.
East head coach and W.Va senator Jim Justice believes last year’s experience should benefit a younger squad.
“To be perfectly honest, our strength of schedule is the real deal,” Justice said. “We played four quad-A teams and we played everybody that would play us. But last year going, has got to be beneficial. But I talk to them all the time about this. I told them before the game the count’s 3-2 and what I mean by the count’s 3-2 is your team’s in the field, the bases are loaded and there’s two outs and the count on the batter is 3-2. Are you pounding your glove at second base and saying, ‘Please don’t let them hit me the ball?’ Because if you’re doing that in life you’re probably not going very far. You’ve got to pound your glove and say, ‘Get me the ball, I’ll make the play,’ and I tell them that all the time.”
East enters the state tournament averaging 65.7 ppg, led by a bushel of talented players.
It starts with guards Kennedy Stewart and Ava Workman with their teammates routinely sharing the spotlight.
Stewart, a junior, is a 1,000-point scorer averaging 18.1 ppg and leads the team with 86 assists. Workman, a sophomore, averages 14,3 ppg, leading East in steals per game at 3.5.
Hannah Fuller, a 6-foot-1 junior center ties the defense together as an automative rim protector, allowing the guards to play aggressive on the wing.
Adding to the onslaught are Sandy Banton and Jada Waller (8.9 ppg).
Adding to the cause will be another junior in Mackenna McClure.
McClure, a starter early in the year, suffered an injury that cost her the back half of the season but was able to return and score five points in the final minutes of the regional matchup with Nicholas County. Justice is hoping to get more minutes out of her in Charleston during what the Spartan faithful hope is a title run.
“Just think we played the tail end of this whole season without her,” Justice said. “And to just have her back and she’s still not 100% at all, but I truly believe the good lord has a hand in everything and those shots just boom, boom going in and everything. That made that kid one happy kid and everything. It made me happy for her, but not only that we still got a week to get her even more ready, so she’ll help us at states.”
East opens with Sissonville on Wednesday at 11:15 a.m.
