Shady Spring – After suffering losses to Ripley and Fairmont Senior that pushed them out of the Top 10 of the Class AAA coaches poll, the Shady Spring Tigers needed to get back on solid ground.
With a slate of five regional games on tap for the week the host Tigers could ill afford another misstep and eliminate any hope of nabbing a top two seed in the regional tournament.
So far, so good.
Shady overcame a poor shooting night from beyond the arc Monday tonight to jet past Princeton 62-47 in Shady Spring.
The host Tigers were just 1-of-16 (six percent) from downtown but managed to grab 18 offensive rebounds, pounding Princeton 43-28 on the boards overall.
Post players Cutter Boggs and Jace Lilly led the assault on that front with the former scoring 16 points to go along with 11 boards while the latter grabbed 12 rebounds.
Shady’s Coby Dillon, who scored a team-high 22 points, added 10 boards for a double-double as well.
“They’re a physical team and our bigs are very physical,” Shady head coach Ronnie Olson said. “You can’t come half-butt when a team is going to be physical like that. They’re bumping you, moving you off the spots, they’re boxing you out and they’re a strong team. I thought our guys did a good job of holding their own inside and playing with a good base and we had, a lot of times, five guys hitting the glass and you need that versus a physical team. Obviously where we made that up that 1-for-16 was inside. That’s a lot – 18 offensive rebounds is a lot. It was all about will and want.”
The visiting Tigers of Princeton had better luck from downtown netting 6-of-21 3-pointers (29 percent) but overall saw just 33 percent (17-for-52) of their shots to fall. That coupled with their disadvantage at the free throw line (7-for-8 to 17-for-24 for Shady) ultimately made the difference in a game that was competitive throughout.
“We got some really good looks, early especially,” Princeton head coach Robb Williams said. “I think we missed five or six layups in the first 10 minutes of the game. You can’t beat a good team by missing layups obviously. You put them on the free throw line every quarter – literally every quarter they were in the bonus and we had one foul on our side so that makes it tough. We were in foul trouble the entire game.
“They’re a physical team so I struggle to understand how they didn’t foul us but we fouled them. I know we’re physical sometimes too but that makes it tough when you’re not shooting well and you’re putting them on the free throw line that makes it very tough.”
After knotting the game at 4-4, Princeton fell behind, conceding Shady’s only 3 of the night – a 30-footer from Coby Dillon followed by a short jumper from Gabe Short. Back-to-back buckets from Cutter Boggs made it a 13-4 contest meanwhile Princeton missed eight consecutive field goals, breaking the skid when Wyatt Cline nailed a 3 for the final points of an opening frame that saw Shady lead 15-8.
That shot changed the visitors’ fortunes as Jayce Gum opened the second quarter with another 3, bringing Princeton to within three points while steadying the tide. Shady again pushed its lead to eight after Jace Lilly converted on a three-point play but a quick 5-0 spurt featuring an Alex Cox 3 quickly turned things around.
When the halftime horn sounded Princeton found itself in the game, trailing just 26-23. But the cat and mouse game never fully favored the Tigers who could never chip the deficit below three points after an early Gum layup.
From there a 12-4 Shady run built a cushion that largely held for the remainder of the game.
“We had, I think eight possessions where we could’ve taken the lead,” Williams said. “Either time we either took an ill-advised shot, missed an easy shot we should’ve made and turned it over. Again, that’s momentum. You aka more of those, take the lead and you never know how the game is going to go. In the third quarter alone I think it was three or four. You let them keep chipping away in terms of pulling away and that’s what happens. You get behind so far and it’s not like they’re a bad team. They’ve been ranked all year. They’re out of the Top 10 this week and they’ve lost, what one game in nine seasons down here?”
“Our bigs just did a great job of asserting themselves,” Olson sad. “Cutter and Jace just battled and battled and with Eli’s (Sexton) injury we’ve had to adjust a little bit for the foreseeable future. Now we’ve got two bigs on the floor at all times. They’re learning to post up, learning to finish and getting inside an putting more pressure on the defense that way as opposed to juts guarding, it’s a little different for us and the guys are getting used to it and we’ve got a bunch of games this week to hopefully figure that out. I really love that we’re able to get in the paint.”
Gum led all scorers with 23 points in the loss and was the only Princeton Tiger in double figures.
Dillon’s 22 paced Shady while Boggs netted 16 and Short 15.
Princeton
Jayce Gum 23, Wyatt Cline 9, Chance Barker 6, Tyler Browning 5, Brad Mossor 3, Alex Cox 3
Shady Spring
Gabe Short 15, Coby Dillon 22, Jace Lilly 5, JAce Bailey 4, Cutter Boggs 16
About the Author
