Charleston – Brilee Redden is accustomed to playing point guard on the perimeter for Greenbrier West. But her biggest impact came in the post Thursday.
With No. 6 West leading 67-65 with 1:22 remaining, Redden grabbed an offensive rebound putting it back up for a layup while drawing a foul, capping a three-point play in an eventual 74-67 victory over No. 3 Tucker County in the Class A state quarterfinals Thursday morning in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The win sends West to the Class A quarterfinals where it will face the winner of Tug Valley-Webster County on Friday at 9 p.m.
Redden, who finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds, nailed five consecutive free throws to close the game but admitted the layup was as much a surprise to her as anybody.
“We actually just talked about that,” Redden said. “Lacey (Critchley) got blocked and I was underneath and I am so scared underneath. I did not like putting the ball back up, but Preslee (Treadway) had the big girl sealed and all I heard was ‘go back up!’ so that’s what I did. I went back up and got to and-1. Made my final shot.”
The shot was just the final high on a rollercoaster ride full of them.
West forced Tucker into 18 first-half turnovers with Maddie Fields being the main beneficiary. Her length bothered the Mountain Lions to the point she came away with six steals in the first half, scoring 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting over that span. Treadway aided the cause, coming away with five steals to help West manage 19 points off of turnovers in the first half alone.
“We’re able to change up a little bit from a 1-3-1, a diamond press and that hurt them a little bit too,” West head coach Mark Agee said. “They were not expecting what was coming back and forth. We got one of the best defensive players in the state and Maddie Fields. She’s one of the best stealers, she pressures the ball well and the other girls getting into lanes and that’s what causes the turnovers. Defensively, I just think that we played our hearts out the first half.”
The charge staked West to a 42-30 advantage at the break with the lead swelling to 17 a minute into the third quarter. And then came the drop.
Faced with foul trouble in the first half, Tucker leaned on its top three scorers to engineer a 20-4 run that brought the Mountain Lions to within a point at 51-50 with 1:34 left in the third quarter. Raven Matthews led the charge with 12 points over that run.
“I got these three (Matthews, Maya Gross and Reagan Herron) in the game,” Tucker County head coach Alisha Lycliter said. “I had them playing with two and three fouls in the first half and so once I could get them in together that generated our run.”
Clinging to a one-point lead, Redden nailed a pull-up 3 to power a quick 5-0 spurt to close the corner.
“Mark always tells us if we’re open, shoot it,” Redden said.
The long ball proved to be an ally of West’s.
Falling behind 65-64 with 1:32 to play, Critchley made the momentum-changing shot, nailing a 3-pointer from the left corner.
“That 3-pointer was big,” Agee said. “It was big, and when she hit that, I don’t know if you noticed, but the girls just got that much more confidence. It was big.”
Critchley’s next attempt was partially blocked before Redden scooped it for the nail in the coffin.
The Lady Cavs lost the rebounding battle 53-34 but made the difference up on defense, where they forced 25 total turnovers and held Tucker to 35 percent shooting (26-of-74) on the morning. By contrast West shot 46 percent (27-of-58) from the field, outscoring Tucker 14-0 on fast break points.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the girls,” Agee said. “We work in one game at a time. We got through this game, they worked hard. The first half we come out, I think we dominated on defense.”
Fields led West with 23 points and seven steals while Preslee Treadway added 21 points and six steals.
Matthews led Tucker with 33 points and 17 rebounds in the loss.
