FAIRLEA- The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans are now officially ready for their season opener on Tuesday, December 3.
Monday night’s second and final scrimmage game of the preseason was played passionately and physically and felt like a ‘winner goes to the state title game’ type atmosphere with all the emotion inside Spartan gym.
I even asked out loud at one point, “they know this is a scrimmage, right?”
But it didn’t matter.
East defeated Sissonville 48-41 in a closely played back-and-forth contest in the last tune-up before heading to Lincoln County next week to open things up for real.
However, the scrimmage, as I said, already felt real.
Head coach Jim Justice was assessed a technical foul late in the first half and that came after a light scrum on the floor between players from both teams. Some parents were screaming at the officials and some even talked back-and-forth to each other.
Honestly, it was quite entertaining.
And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.
On the floor, the Spartans lineup was as familiar as it can get. Last year’s state tournament qualifiers went with Hannah Fuller, Jada Waller, Mackenna McClure, Kennedy Stewart, and Ava Workman with Sandy Banton getting a lot of minutes off the bench and it felt like we were back in March of 2024 as that rotation is almost identical to last season. We will delve more into that over the next week or so leading up to the first game and look at who can provide some key minutes at certain spots on the floor.
East led 33-30 after a Stewart 3, but a triple from Sissonville’s Kynadee Britton knotted the score at 33-all. But the Spartans went on a 9-0 run keyed by Stewart and Waller, and they pulled ahead and closed the game out on a positive note.
East will work out some kinks before regular season play, and by the looks of them, will most likely be in midseason form sooner rather than later.
And if the games are as physical and entertaining with the drama that this scrimmaged produced, it will be an exciting season of Lady Spartan basketball as East will look to reclaim another seat on the bus for Charleston.
