Prosperity – Greenbrier West had a shot to upend top-seeded Greater Beckley in Wednesday Class A Region 3 co-final.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers they missed about five at point blank range in the final frame.
After squandering a 16-point lead late in the third quarter Greater Beckley’s Aislinn Pelfrey nailed a corner 3-pointer in the final minutes, giving the Crusaders the lead for good and with it a 47-43 victory over West at Greater Beckley.
The win sends the Crusaders to the state tournament for the first time since 2011 where they’ve earned the No. 7 seed and a matchup with No. 2 Tug Valley on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Ahead 40-24 and well on their way to an easy victory ahead, the Crusaders watched as a lid popped on their bucket and Greenbrier West took advantage. The Cavs ripped a 19-1 run, taking a 43-41 lead with under two minutes to play, hampering the Crusaders’ tournament hopes.
“We’re known to do that, Greater Beckley head coach Lane Acord said. “We’re known to get a 15-point lead and then we’re known to go six or seven minutes and not score. Where we don’t have an inside presence we’ve got to live and die by the jump shot. The good thing about it is where we’re not as tall as everybody, we have five girls who can handle the ball and five girls who can shoot.
“When you get other team’s bigs away from the basket it does open up driving lanes. But if they don’t come out we do get open 3s. It’s kind of the way I played when I was in school and my son played when I coached him. We shoot a lot of 3s, work hard and press and try to get easy baskets.”
Pelfrey lined up a 3 to snap a streak of 12 consecutive empty possessions, many of which ended in a turnover, giving the Crusaders a 44-43 edge that they kept through the turbulent final minute.
“They got all the momentum back,” Acord said. “They were rebounding on us to death but Aislinn can step out. She loves that corner 3 and it was a huge shot just to give us a little bit of life, a little bit of confidence. We were just looking for anybody to hit a basket and she can hit those shots. It’s a good shot for her.”
In a game where both offenses were inept, shooting just over 30 percent from the field each, double digit leads proved relatively common to overcome for the visitors.
With West standout Gracie Rhodes relegated to the bench for most of the first half due to foul trouble the Cavaliers battled to a 9-9 tie after a quarter but eventually yielded a 12-2 that featured 3s from Pelfrey and Adkins, the latter of which crossed 1,000 career points later in the game.
Down 23-13 the Cavs closed the half on a 9-2 spurt, capitalizing on an Emmalee Nelson 3 right before the half.
Pelfrey and Adkins again keyed a stretch that saw the hosts push their led back to double digits going ahead 36-22 on an Adkins 3 that put her over the millennium mark for her career.
“I came into this season wanting to score my 1,000th point but towards the end of the season I felt like I was in a rough patch and I was like, ‘I’m not going to do it.'” Adkins said. “And then I found out two games ago that I was right there and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I can hit it before states. That definitely put some more effort into my game because I have a goal to reach and I can reach it.”
Whitney Bibb and Tomilee Milam helped establish the largest lead of the game at 16 points afterwards before the wheels unscrewed. The Cavs cut the deficit back to 10 on a Laikyn Tolley 3 to end the third and locked in from there.
Their ability to score allowed them to set up their pressure and force turnovers off of it with seven of the host’s 17 coming in the final frame.
A bucket from Rhodes and five consecutive points from Nelson cut the deficit to 3. Ahead by 1, Bibb split a pair of free throws for Greater Beckley to snap a 15-0 run but Rhodes later knotted the game at 41 before Tolley gave West the lead.
Those proved to be the final points of the season for the Cavs who struggled at the rim, grabbing 15 offensive rebounds to help offset those woes in the long but struggling to capitalize on their second chances.
“I think where we pressed and we kept pressure on them all the time, I think they got a little tied,” Acord said. “They did go on that run but when we go back into our three-quarter press, our half court, we juts have to generate easy shots. If we’re in proper position, sometimes you don’t have to be real big, you juts have to be in the right spot. That’s what we pride ourselves on. We’re not trying to be the hero, we have to do it as a collective group. We do that pretty good 75 percent of the game.”
Adkins led GBC with 17 points while Bibb netted 14 and Pelfrey 10.
Nelson was the only Cavalier in double figures with 10 points.
Greenbrier West
Gracie Rhodes 6, Zayleigh Styer 4, Laikyn Tolley 6, Emmalee Nelson 10, Summer Berry 9, Ellianna Deitz 4, Alicia Thomas 4
Greater Beckley
Destyni Farrish 2, Leah Adkins 17, Whitney Bibb 14, Aislinn Pelfrey 10, Tomilee Milam 4
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