Unfortunately for Greenbrier East, the Pioneers were immune from those previous struggles.
No. 2 Wayne connected on 49 percent of its shots (25-of-51) and 55 percent of its 3-point attempts (11-for-20) in a 69-57 victory over the third-seeded Spartans Friday morning in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The win sends Wayne to its first championship game appearance in program history where it will face the winner of Grafton-Nitro on Saturday at 12:30.
For a quarter neither team could miss with East hitting 58 percent of its shots and Wayne firing at a 52 percent clip. But East, which made 10 field goals in the first quarter, converted on just 11 the rest of the way.
Wayne had just one quarter in the game – the third – where it shot less than 50 percent.
“Well, we sure didn’t expect Wayne to shoot at all like that,” Greenbrier East head coach and W.Va senator Jim Justice said. “That’s all. That’s the opening and ending thought. They shot almost 50 percent from the field, they shot 55 percent on 3s. We certainly thought we had a good defense so we could defend their number one shooter and take her out of the game. and lo and behold, it was going in for everyone, everywhere.”
Tied at 24 after a quarter that featured seven 3s, Wayne built a small cushion after a pair of 3s from Jayce Sammons but East sophomore Ava Workman powered the Spartans ahead 33-32 with a steal and a layup with two minutes to play in the half.
Then the onslaught of 3s came.
Brooke Adkins started it and Lexi Blankenship finished it with two more giving the Pioneers a 41-33 advantage at the break.
With Workman and Kennedy Stewart pacing the Spartans at 22 points combined, Wayne put an added emphasis on the duo and it worked. They combined to score just seven points in the second half.
“They pressured way more in the second half,” Workman said. “They went to triangular-and-two and pressured me and Kennedy, and I think that Sandy (Banton) helped us a little bit.”
“We done a better job of finding them earlier,” Wayne head coach Wade Williamson said of Workman and Stewart. “I mean they’re so good and they don’t care to shoot them from 22 feet either. And so they’re so good in transition. And I think our size and height kind of bothered both of them a little bit. We put taller players on them in an effort to try to make them shoot over top of us.”
Banton, a beneficiary of the extra attention Stewart and Workman drew, capitalized with a pair of third quarter 3s while Stewart and Waller added one each. The surge helped East rally from a 48-38 deficit to crawl within four points after three.
But the Spartan offense went cold in the fourth shooting 3-of-13 from the field.
They had the deficit at eight points with four minutes to go after watching it balloon to 13 but made just one more field goal the rest of the way.
“I thought we were – obviously we played well off offensively, shot the ball well today, which we didn’t do the other day,” Williamson said. “We played well, offensively and I through in the fourth quarter we were able to play defense. We held them to eight points in that quarter, and I think that was the difference for us.”
East graduates Waller and reserve Alexis Stack but returns its core players in Stewart, Workman, Banton, Mackenna McClure and Hannah Fuller.
“They’ll be ready to play, I promise you that,” Justice said.
Sammons, whop netted six 3s, led the Pioneers with 23 points while Brooke Adkins (16), Mikalya Stacy (14) and Blankenship (11) joins her in double figures. Addison Adkins added 11 assists for Wayne.
East placed four in double figures as well, led by Workman’s 16 points. Joining her were Stewart (13), Waller (10) and Banton (12).
