FAIRLEA, WV- At Christmas time, it’s good to be happy and have something positive to build upon.
For the Greenbrier East Spartans basketball team, this seven-day holiday break will be full of smiles as they got an impressive gift on the court a few days early.
East used a 25-9 fourth quarter run to come from behind and defeat the Capital Cougars–who basically led the game all night—76-69 at Spartan Gym on Wednesday night, Dec. 20.
The Cougars (0-2) led 39-28 at halftime and entered the fourth quarter leading by nine, 60-51 despite Gabe Patton’s 21 points through three.
But when the final period began, it was like a switch flipping on the Spartan bench that increased their energy level, intensity, and execution.
“We were down nine to start the fourth quarter. I told the guys we have been here before so let’s go win this game,” East head coach Jared Patton said.
“We made some adjustments on both sides of the ball and the kids did great with the adjustments,” he added.
Donavin Penn, who had four points up to that point, scored six in the first minute-and-a-half of the fourth period and was the reason the Spartans pulled to within 62-57 with 6:30 remaining. Penn then led to another East score with his passing when he found Layne Lambert for a bucket inside, then Lambert hit a little floater in the lane the next time down, and East had trimmed the deficit to 62-61.
“We didn’t settle for jump shots,” Coach Patton said.
“We moved the ball the way we should and attacked the gaps.”
The Spartans (2-3) scored the next five points to complete an 11-0 run and take a 66-62 lead with just under four minutes left in the contest. During the run, a technical foul on the Capital bench aided by five Cougar turnovers in six possessions also gave the Spartans a boost on the scoreboard.
Capital pulled to within 1-point on two different occasions the rest of the way, but some clutch shots from Patton, Brody Hamric, and DeHaven, and some big rebounds from Lambert, helped the Spartans seal a dramatic win that will give the team some serious momentum after losing two in a row last weekend.
“This was a solid win for us. Capital is a good, fast team and they will win a lot of games this season,” the coach stated.
Lambert and Penn shared Magic’s Computer Repair players of the game honors. Each scored 12 points and Lambert was in double figures in rebounds with no official word yet on those.
Patton finished with a game-high 28 points and Hamric added 13.
For Capital, Elijah Bennett had 18 points and David Robinson got 12.
The Spartans have some time off until next Thursday, Dec. 28 when they hit the road to South Charleston to take on the Black Eagles.
“We felt as though we let one slip away from us when we played St. Albans, so we were happy that we competed to the end in this game,” Coach Patton concluded.
Stats courtesy of Oldies 93, WKCJ.
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