FAIRLEA- The first round of the Spartan Holiday Showcase tipped off on Friday night, Dec. 27 as the Greenbrier East Lady Spartans battled the Ripley Lady Vikings in game two of the day.
In game one, Mingo Central defeated Jefferson Christian.
After a hot shooting start from downtown, Greenbrier East cruised to an easy 68-26 victory.
It was one of those nights the Spartans just have every now and then and there really isn’t much anyone can do about it.
Kennedy Stewart hit a quick 3 on the first possession and Mackenna McClure followed with one of her own following a steal on the Ripley inbounds pass. That prompted Vikings coach John Kennedy to hop off the bench and call a timeout.
But the stoppage only propelled the Spartans even more.
Stewart drained another trifecta, then Ava Workman added another. Finally, McClure hit her second trey of the night and Greenbrier East led 15-0 with just 2:10 gone in the game.
The lead grew to 19-0 before Ripley’s Kassidy Wilson broke the run with a couple free throws. Honestly, everyone in attendance knew the game was over right then and there. The Spartans led 31-6 after the first quarter.
Stewart added eight more points, including two of her six first half threes, in the second quarter and East built an insurmountable 48-12 lead at the break.
The Spartans got a lot of girls some much-needed playing time as the second half got underway and emptied the bench for the entire fourth quarter.
Stewart led the way for East with 20 points and four rebounds. Workman added 16 points and seven steals.
————————————————————————————————————————–
On Saturday night, the Spartans (9-0) took on the extremely talented Mingo Central Lady Miners and their star point guard, Addie Smith.
And it was another strong start for the Spartans that allowed them to put the Miners down 69-36.
Smith was held to just four points in the first half, mostly due to the ferocious defense from Workman of the Spartans and East used that to excel on the other end of the floor as well.
The Spartans are proving night in and night out that their undefeated start and state’s number 2 ranking are not flukes due to crazy circumstances. They have defeated then no. 1 Nitro and have taken care of business against other good teams in the state.
Stewart led East with 23 points. On top of the defensive effort on Smith in the first half, Workman added 12 points and four steals.
Smith still led the Miners (4-2) and ended the game with 19 points, 15 of them in the second half.
