FAIRLEA- At the beginning, it did not look all that great for The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans when they played host to the Mercer Christian Academy Cavaliers (MCA) on Monday, January 22 at the Spartan Gym in Fairlea.
However, a convincing 14-0 run in the fourth quarter resulted in the Spartans securing a 56-44 victory.
MCA came to Fairlea not just happy to be there, but to steal a victory and the way things started, it did not look out of the realm of possibility.
Mercer Christian brought Kayley Trump and Ella Botts and both of those girls did everything they could for MCA. Botts’ layup and assist to Bailee Martin tied the game at 4-all early. Hannah Fuller’s offensive rebound and some buckets from Jada Waller gave the Spartans (10-3) an 11-4 lead with around two minutes to play, but the last couple minutes belonged to the Cavs. Kayley Trump and Botts went on a mini 6-0 run and cut East’s lead to 11-10 at the end of the first quarter.
MCA (9-4) jumped out to a 6-point lead at 19-13 early in the second on five quick points from Kayley Trump. East’s Sandy Banton gave the Spartans a nice spark when she got a nice assist to Mackenna McClure and then scored five points of her own including a 3 from the wing. But then Karis Trump drained a shot from downtown and Kayley scored inside for a 27-22 Mercer Christian lead. Kennedy Stewart hit a much needed 3 to end the half with the Spartans trailing 27-25.
Fuller scored on an assist from Waller early in the second half that made the score 30-29, MCA, and two possessions later, Stewart knocked in another 3 to tie the score at 32-all with 5:40 left in the third. Fuller then had two consecutive offensive rebound putbacks that gave East a 38-32 lead and forced the Cavaliers into a quick timeout. After three, East led 40-34.
After Kayley Trump scored an old-fashioned 3-point play to open the fourth, the Spartans dug in and decided they had seen enough. Waller, Ava Workman, Fuller, and Reagan Rink all contributed to a massive 14-0 run that broke the game wide open as the Spartans survived the scare and got the win.
East has now won seven games in a row. They shot 42 percent (4-of-21 from 3-point) for the game but turned the ball over 18 times. The Cavs shot just 31 percent.
Fuller was the player of the game as she scored 15 points and grabbed 19 rebounds (7 offensive). Stewart scored 13 points and pulled down 5 rebounds.
Kayley Trump led MCA with 20 points.
Scoring by Quarter:
1 2 3 4 Total
MCA- 10 17 7 10 44
GE- 11 14 15 16 56
GE Individual Scoring: Fuller 15, Stewart 13, Workman 7, Waller 7, McClure 7, Sa. Banton 5, Rink 2
