Charleston – Keyser brought the Golden Tornado but Kennedy Stewart made it rain.
The senior all-stater scored 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting nailing a pair of deep 3-pointers – four overall – as Greenbrier East downed Keyser 52-37 in the Class AAA semifinals Friday morning at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The win improves Greenbrier East to 26-0 and sends it to its first title game since 2012 where it will face the winner of East Fairmont-Nitro on Saturday at 5 p.m.
After going 2-for-16 from downtown in their quarterfinal win on Wednesday the Lady Spartans found their range early, taking a 12-2 lead early and never looking back in the win.
“I felt really good shooting it in warmups so I knew I had to get open,” Stewart said. “Then you hit one the juices start flowing so I let it fly. We build off each other.”
The hot start was one of there first half subplots with the other being fellow all-stater Ava Workman’s foul issues. The junior picked up two fouls in the first quarter and was relegated to the bench for the remainder of the frame. West Virginia Senator and Greenbrier East head coach Jim Justice didn’t hesitate to reinsert her to start the second quarter, a decision that paid dividends.
She scored eight of her 15 points in that frame alone to help build a halftime cushion.
“Coach told me not to worry about it,” Workman said. “If I got three, I was going to be fine either way. I think you could still play hard obviously but I had to take a step back, kind of. ”
East, which shot 40 percent (8-for-20) from beyond the arc on the morning, established its first double-digit lead behind treys from Workman, Kala Waller and Stewart but watched as Keyser’s Austyn Healy netted on log her own to crawl back within seven at the end of the first quarter.
Another trey, this one from Mackenna McClure, extended the lead to 11 at 17-6 early in the second, putting the pressure on Keyser. The Golden Tornado responded, cutting the deficit to as few as seven points again but Stewart buried a deep pull-up 3 ahead of the halftime horn to grant the top-seeded Spartans a 29-18 halftime lead.
While East’s offense extended the lead the defense held Keyser in check with the Mineral County natives netting just 11 field goals on the day, six of which came from beyond the arc.
“We switched it up a lot on defense,” Stewart said. “I think today we came out in just a zone and I think it really messed with them. They’re not bad shooters, they really aren’t but if we’re just bumping and getting a hand in their face the entire time it’s harder for them to make shots. So even when we switched into a man I thought we lost some kids but when we went back into a zone we tried to really key into the gaps. We didn’t want them to get into our gaps.”
Keyser’s smallest deficit in the second half was 11 points but the dam collapsed at that point. Workman sank a pair of free throws, Stewart made a layup and Waller delivered her second 3 to make it a 43-25 contest.
The Spartans flirted with a 20-point lead the rest of the way, never threatened on their way to a title game berth.
“We’ve been here a lot,” Justice said. “We’ve been to the state tournament a lot and we’ve advanced and there’s times we didn’t advance and times we made it to the championship game and played Alexis Hornbuckle and Renee Montgomery at the same time. But really, this team has played an incredible tough schedule, they really have.
“And both of the teams we could face in the championship game, we beat both those teams (East Fairmont and Nitro) in the regular season … So they’ve played the very best and they’re as ready as I know they’ll possible be. We’re going to go and take a little breather and get a little something to eat and get Baby Dog some nuggets and then come back and watch the game and we’ll be ready to go.”
Stewart’s 20 points led all players while Workman netted 15. McClure came in with 12 rebounds in addition to eight points.
Bibbs Felton and Kiya Kesner scored 11 each for Keyser in the loss.
About the Author
