But the clock struck midnight, or at least halftime.
Greenbrier East outscored the Grizzlies 21-4 in the third quarter, turning an eight-point advantage into a 25-point one after three quarters, cruising to a 73-44 victory over the Nicholas County in the Class AAA Region 3 co-final Thursday in Fairlea.
East returns to the state tournament for the second straight season, this time in Class AAA, where it has earned the No. 3 seed and a date with No. 6 Sissonville Wednesday at 11:15 a.m. in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
For the Lady Spartans, most of their first half struggles came down to a poor shooting performance, firing at just a 31 percent clip (11-of-36) despite taking 12 more shots than the Grizzlies.
In the third quarter that all changed.
Scorching the nets at a 62 percent clip (8-of-13), out-rebounding Nicholas 9-3 and holding the Grizzlies to 1-of-8 shooting (13 percent), East effectively put the game away out of the half.
“We came out and put a lot of pressure on them in our diamond press,” East head coach and W.Va Senator Jim Justice said. “We were in foul trouble, but we got through it with Ava having two. Really and truly, we got after it.”
East tried to pull away early but the Grizzlies never relented.
Taking a 12-6 lead in the first quarter on a Jada Waller 3, Taylor White fired back with her own trey, answered by Eats’s Kennedy Stewart. Ahead 17-9 following a Hanna Fuller layup, East saw its lead cut again when Olivia Stone netted a 3.
Down 19-14 after a quarter, the Grizzlies chipped again with an Adrienne Truman 3, eventually tying the game at 21 on back-to back buckets from Tateny Mylott.
But a 9-0 run, featuring seven points from all-stater Kennedy Stewart jolted the Spartans as they went into the break up 32-24.
Then came the downpour.
Ava Workman, who shot 2-of-9 (22 percent) in the first half and struggled with foul trouble, opened the second half with a layup that pushed the lead to 10. Sandy Banton and Jada Waller followed suit before Truman snapped the skid with a floater. But it was short-lived.
A Workman free throw, a pair of Stewart free throws, a Waller layup and consecutive Fuller layups blew the game open at 47-26. In all the Spartans finished with a 15-0 run between Nicholas County scores to cement the victory.
“In my opinion and I know losing coaches always say it’s the officials. I understand that. But I thought there was a whole lot of contact when we got the ball down to our post player,” Nicholas County head coach Kameron Hornsby said of the second half offensive struggles. “I thought she made great moves. She asked me at halftime she said ‘Coach, what do I need to do?’ I said, ‘Pump fake (Fuller), get her off her feet.’ And we just didn’t get the calls.
“We’ve got those calls all season. And I’m kind of disappointed with not getting those calls, but again, we still have to make other shots too that we had. It didn’t come to that. I don’t know what we were from the foul line, but I know it wasn’t pretty, and I know moving forward we’re going to take a little more precedent on that.”
East’s second-half turnaround on offense contributed to the gap. The Lady Spartans fired at a 58 percent clip (15-of-26) in the second half with Workman going 4-of-5 from the field with 12 points in the final 16 minutes.
“First of all, we got shooters. and second of all, I’m a real believer that shooting percentage is directly proportionate to how much the ball’s in the paint,” Justice said. “So we got to go to Hanna, then we got to come back out. We got to drive the ball in there and come back there. But really and truly, we practice this so much it’s unbelievable and I just felt like everybody stepped up and played real hard today.”
One storyline concerning East was somewhat resolved late in the game.
Starter MacKenna McClure, who missed much of the second half of the season with a knee injury, checked in late scoring five points to provide a much-needed reinforcement ahead of next week’s state tournament.
“Just think we played the tail end of this whole season without her,” Justice said. “And to just have her back and she’s still not 100% at all, but I truly believe the good lord has a hand in everything and those shots just boom, boom going in and everything. That made that kid one happy kid and everything. It made me happy for her, but not only that we still got a week to get her even more ready, so she’ll help us at states.”
Workman led East an all scorers with 17 while Fuller and Stewart netted 16 each.
Truman led Nicholas County with 16 points in her final game.
NC: 14 10 4 16 – 44
GE: 19 13 21 20 – 73
Nicholas County
Adrienne Truman 16, Olivia Stone 12, Taylor White 3, Tateny Mylott 4, Maddison Coffman 3, Maddie Jones 2
Greenbrier East
Ava Workman 17, Kennedy Stewart 16, Jada Waller 11, Alexis Stack 4, MacKenna McClure 5, Liz Wooding 2, Hanna Fuller 16, Sandy Banton 2
