BECKLEY- After a short losing skid, the Greenbrier East Spartans are back right where they belong, in the win column.
Playing without leading scorer Gabe Patton, the Spartans put four players in double figures and used a dominating third quarter to pull away from the Pikeview Panthers 67-43 in the New River CTC Invitational at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center on Thursday, Jan. 4.
It was a back-and-forth contest for much of the first quarter.
Brody Hamric hit a long 3 that gave East a 5-4 lead, then it was Donavin Pen for the Spartans that gave them a spark off the bench. Penn hit a floater in the lane, knocked in a free throw, scored another bucket underneath, and finally gave the Spartans a 12-10 lead on another basket as he reeled off seven consecutive East points. Hamric added five more points at the end of the quarter and capped it off with a nice assist to Layne Lambert, and after one, East led 19-14.
Lambert scored early in the second to put East up 21-14, then Nathan Dixon connected on a jumper that made it 25-16 a couple minutes later. James McCraw’s floater in the lane and a basket from Hamric extended the Spartans lead to 29-17 with just under two minutes left in the first half. Bryson Bailey and David Thomas tried their best to keep the Panthers (2-5) close as each scored to round out the half and East held a 29-21 lead at the break.
The third quarter belonged to the team from Greenbrier County.
Hamric’s 3-pointer and Penn’s floater inside gave East their largest lead of the night at 11 points, but it kept going up from there. After Pikeview’s Jared Vestal scored down low, Dixon, Lambert, and Hamric answered for the Spartans. McCraw got a layup to end the third and it put East’s scoring run at 12-0 and gave them a commanding 54-35 lead after three quarters of play.
East (3-5) used the fourth quarter to their advantage and ran the clock down while also holding their lead firmly in place. Back-to-back buckets from Lambert and Dixon, and a 3 from Penn to cap the scoring highlighted the final period for the Spartans as they etched their win total to three for the season.
The Spartans shot the ball well at 45.9 percent (28-for-61). They held the Panthers to 36 percent shooting on the night.
Hamric led East with 17 points. Dixon added 15, Lambert had 14, and Penn contributed 12 points for the Spartans.
East will play one more game in the tournament this Saturday, Jan. 6 at 4:30 PM against the Cabell Midland Knights.
Scoring by quarter:
1 2 3 4 Tot.
P: 14 7 12 10 43
GE: 19 10 25 13 67
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.