Fairlea – Greenbrier East has managed to win two games this week in nerve-wrackimg fashion but the bottom line is they’ve won.
Thursday’s casualty just happened to be the Spartans’ arch nemesis.
East survived an 18-point fourth quarter from Beckley to collect a 49-45 win over the Flying Eagles in Fairlea.
The December meeting between the two teams came down to the final minute and this one followed suit. Trailing 44-43 with exactly a minute to play, a mishandled Beckley dribble became a loose ball and a bucket on the other end for East’s Cai Jones with 54 seconds to play.
Trailing 46-43, Beckley had an open look at the tying 3-pointer but missed the shot, grabbed the offensive rebound and turned the ball over in the paint anyways, giving East the opportunity to close the game out at at the charity stripe.
“During the Princeton game (on Tuesday) as a coaching staff, we felt as though we played 20 good minutes and 12 not so good minutes,” East head coach Jared Patton said. “Tonight we probably played 25 minutes good and then the rest not what we wanted. Hopefully we’re going in the right direction with that and that’s something we work on. We’re finding ways to win but when we’ve got a double-digit lead we’ve got to increase that. Win or lose tonight, we’ve got tons of things to work on that’s one of them.”
Beckley was largely sunk by an early deficit (falling behind 17-4) and its inability to find the bottom of the net. The Flying Eagles were just 13-for-37 from the field (35 percent) with seven of those makes coming from beyond the arc.
Heading into the fourth quarter they were just 7-for-27 from the field.
Beckley head coach Ron Kidd declined to speak after the game.
To Patton it was largely a testament to his team’s defensive effort, never allowing the Flying Eagles to fully rally after falling in an early hole.
“A lot of our defense rotates around help defense and just trying to keep teams out of the middle,” Patton said. “(Jahden Robinson), three 3s in the fourth quarter, we didn’t do a good job on him. He got hot and made everything but we wanted to force everything out and I thought we did a good job of that tonight. Giving up that many 3s, I’m not too happy about that but we’ve just got to rotate and close out a little better.”
Beckley struggled from the jump Thursday, watching East galavant to a 9-0 lead behind four points from Sam Hawver and a 3 from Darius Burns.
Robinson broke the skid for the visitors with a 3 but Burns was automatic on the response with another long ball. Three free throws from Brody Hamric and two more form Nathan Dixon put the Spatans on the cusp of an early blowout at 17-4 but a layup and a free throw from Kingston Clark made it a 17-7 game after one.
And so ensued a scoring drought that kept the hosts off the scoreboard for the first four minutes of the second frame, allowing the hosts to climb back within five points and as many as four.
“We always talk about getting out to a fast start and I thought we were executing and moving the ball really well,” Patton said. “Then we go in the second quarter and the ball movement kind of stopped and we kind of let them dictate what we were going to do on offense which is never a good thing and they did a great job with that. We just needed better ball movement and to attack the basket a little more instead of settling.”
East pushed the advantage to 27-19 at the break and led again by double digits in the third quarter following a steal by Hamric that led to a breakaway dunk for Dixon and 32-22 East lead.
After another round of tug of war, led 38-27 early in the fourth following a Darius Burns layup and later 41-29 following a Dhani Terry 3. But a 14-3 run that featured a trio of 3s and pair of free throws from Robinson made it a 44-43 game, setting up East’s defensive stand to close the game.
The victory came with different contributors for East as Dixon was limited to just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting while starter Braylen Godfrey missed the game with a knee injury.
In there place Hamric remained steady while Burns finished with a team-high 16 points.
“Brody’s got to be one of the strongest players in the state,” Patton said. “He’s just a kid, day in and day out, practice and games, he gives you everything he has and that’s just the kind of kid he is. He’s a tough player man. We run a lot of stuff for him and he tends to make the good decision.
“He doesn’t turn the ball over very much and if he drives and it’s not there he now where the shooters are for kickouts. And Darius, who knows how many points he would’ve had? He got in foul trouble early so we had to sub him for awhile but when he comes out and he’s hitting like that he’s a totally different player and he’s hard to guard one-on-one.”
Hamric and Burns were the only Spartans in double figures.
Robinson was the only Flying Eagle in double figures with a game-high 19 points.
Beckley
Gage Burdette 6, Lucas Rainey 3, Javontae Wynnes 6, Preston Clary 8, Jahden Robinson 19, Kingston Clark 3
Greenbrier East
Brody Hamric 12, Darius Burns 16, Nate Dixon 7, Sam Hawver 6, Dhani Terry 3, Cai Jones 3, Brodrik Gunter 2,
WW: 7 12 8 18 –
GE: 17 10 9 13 – 49
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