Montcalm – Following an upset loss at Sherman on Tuesday, Greater Beckley hoped to avoid that same fate against another regional foe.
Mission accomplished.
In a matchup of the region’s two Class A state tournament representatives from a year ago, the Crusaders finished a season sweep of Montcalm with a 77-43 win over the Generals in Montcalm Thursday night.
The Crusaders capitalized on their defensive prowess, forcing the Generals to settle for 20 3-pointers, a strategy that became less effective as the game went on and they were unable to get to the rim.
“Once we decided to stay solid, keep the ball in front of us and not jump trap for no reason and not give them little pitch aheads, it was difficult for them to get downhill and into the paint except off the offensive rebounds,” Greater Beckley head coach Justin Arvon said. “If we’re going to keep them out of the paint and going downhill we better be willing to rebound the ball and keep them off the glass.
“(Donovan Reed) killed us. He’s a heck of an athlete a banger in the paint and a great kid it sounds like too. But we’ve got to be willing to do the extra stuff. Stop the ball and the job’s not done. There’s some other stuff we’ve got to do.”
For the Generals a patient approach on offense was the plan coming in with the aim to attack the Crusaders when creases were presented.
As the game went on they rarely were with the Generals attempting just 22 shots inside the arc, several of them coming off of offensive rebounds.
It came to a head in the second quarter when the Generals, trailing 26-19, yielded a 15-4 run that had the game teetering in blowout territory at the intermission.
“We kind of lost our patience offensively and lost our way,” Montcalm head coach Adam Havens said. “We didn’t value the basketball enough during that stretch there at the end of the first half. Against a team as well-coached and talented as they are, you’ve got to do everything right to compete and we didn’t handle the little things they were throwing at us with the right poise in that stretch.”
A reliance on the trey paid off for the Generals early as they hit a trio of 3s in the opening frame to stay afloat. The Crusaders struggled from deep in that same frame (1-for-7) but made up for it with efficiency inside the arc, converting on 8 of 11 (73 percent) 2-pointers.
After Javonte Spencer opened the scoring for the Crusaders with their only 3 of the opening frame, Iziah Gordon followed with a three-point play and a 6-4 lead. Montcalm later retook the advantage when B.J. Allen netted a trey at 9-8 and extended the advantage to 12-10 with another shot from beyond the arc. But brothers Javonte and Jabari Spencer reestablished order for the visitors.
Jabari’s layup knotted the game before the two alternated buckets for an 18-12 lead. Gordon pushed the advantage to eight, followed by a 3 from Montcalm’s Landin Clower to snap the 10-0 drought right before the end of the frame.
A rebound and layup by Montcalm’s Korbin Nunn early in the second quarter trimmed a nine-point deficit to seven prompting a timeout from Arvon.
“We took that timeout at 26-19 and I had them look at the scoreboard,” Arvon said. “This is no joke. We’re doing things we’ve never done. We’ve never had a defense that traps from the front in transition. That leaves guys wide open and out of rebounding position and shooters wide open. So once we decided we were going to keep the ball in front of us and make them shoot over us and contest, then I think that threw them a little out of the loop. (Montcalm) played well out of the gate.”
Eli Gunter, who sat the first quarter due to a coach’s decision, erupted in the second frame scoring 11 of his 20 points in the frame to build an eventual 41-23 cushion at the break.
“I think that his focus was there and he was raring to go to start the second quarter,” Arvon said. “It’s always good to have a team leader and one of your better players on the floor and not even tired a little bit. That might’ve worked to our advantage there in the second quarter. Eli’s a great player, a great leader and rebounder believe it or not and all of that showed up when he got in the game so I’m very proud of what he did.”
Behind Gordon, who scored 16 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, the Crusaders nailed the coffin shut in the third quarter as the freshman produced nine points in the frame, hitting the first bucket of the half that established a 20-point advantage.
It never fell below that number the rest of the way.
“Keeping them out of the paint was something we knew we had to do,” Havens said. “They just got downhill on us so we tried to play zone and I knew that would be a challenge because they’ve got shooters that space the floor. (Gunter) got hot. He came in and gave them a real spark and then of course the Gordon kid is always someone if he has a little bit of space he’s going to knock it down and he was phenomenal on the offensive end. And Javonte is an athlete and it’s hard to keep him off the boards and out of the paint no matter what you throw at them. We did the best we could to keep them out of the paint and force them into shooting 3s and just try to contest as much as we could.”
Javonte Spencer joined Gordon and Gunter in double figures with 19 points.
Donovan Reed led the Generals with 17 points in the loss while Korbin Nunn netted 12.
Greater Beckley
Javonte Spencer 19, Eli Gunter 20, Iziah Gordon 23, Jabari Spencer 9, Josh Garlow 3, Byron Lambert 3
Montcalm
BJ Allen 6, Korbin Nunn 12, Dylan Thomason 5, Landin Clower 3, Donovan Reed 17
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