Beckley – A promising start was followed by a slow finish for James Monroe.
Leading 17-12 in the second quarter, the Mavericks watched Shady Spring close the half on an 18-4 run in a 64-52 victory for the Tigers in the Little General Battle for the Armory Monday night in Beckley.
The win send the Tigers to the title game where they’ll face Wyoming Eats on Tuesday evening. James Monroe will be met with another stout Raleigh County challenger when it faces Beckley.
The decisive 18-4 run in the second quarter bled into the third quarter, ballooning to a 25-5 advantage that saw the Tigers go top 37-22.
“The way we scored the game we thought they wouldn’t be Abel to handle our ball pressure,” Shady head coach Ronnie Olson said. “We watched film and I did think we got them out of what they wanted to do.”
The second quarter charge was primarily led by senior Coby Dillon who netted 12 of his game-high 22 points in the frame. A personal 8-0 run from the sharpshooter in the before the break put the Tigers up 28-21 with the score sitting at 30-21 at the intermission.
“We were doing some things wrong there that we’ll have to clean up and watch on film,” James Monroe head coach Kelly Mann said. “Dillon’s a good player but we were really rotating incorrectly, slowly. We need to play with a higher intensity.”
Shady blew the game open in the third quarter, leading by as many as 20 points in the frame and 22 in the fourth quarter.
Fellow Tigers Jace Lilly (13) and Gabe Short (11) joined Dillon in double figures while Kadyn Hines led James Monroe with 18 points in the loss.
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