FAIRLEA- The new high school rankings had just released and had the Greenbrier East Spartans as the ninth ranked team in Class AAA.
When the ball tipped off on Tuesday night, Jan. 14 at home versus the Pikeview Panthers, the Spartans lived up to that billing.
East (4-2) turned a 4-point halftime lead into a relatively comfortable 74-53 victory over a solid Panthers team that just seemed to run out of gas.
The two teams had already met on December 17 with the Spartans taking that one 69-57 and this game was played almost exactly the same way.
The Panthers came out full of confidence and looked to guard Bryson Bailey who drained three 3-pointers in the opening quarter. By the end of the period, he was having fun taunting the Spartan student section who gave the taunts right back to him.
East countered Bailey with Darius Burns who hit a couple trifectas and with Donavin Penn who lived at the free throw line. He only went 4-for-8 there, but showed early aggressive play which would favor the Spartans.
After one quarter, the score was tied at 15-all.
In the second quarter, the Spartans looked and went to Brody Hamric. Hamric, a junior, answered with seven points in the quarter including a long 3. Nathan Dixon also chipped in seven points as well for the home team.
Bailey, though, continued to be a problem for the Spartan defense. He went from nailing 3s to getting into the paint and converting at the charity stripe. He added 10 more points in the second including a perfect 5-for-5 at the line.
Just before half, Reed McCraw found Penn wide open on an inbounds play for a 32-26 East lead. That advantage would extend to 35-31 at halftime after Dixon’s left wing 3.
Whatever Spartan head coach Jared Patton said in the locker room, worked.
The second half belonged to Greenbrier East and in particular, Hamric. Hamric played well in the third quarter, but the pesky Panthers (3-4) continued to hang around and refused to go away.
That is, until the final quarter.
Pikeview did not score a single field goal in the final period until inside two minutes remaining, and they watched the Spartans score several. Hamric and Dixon continued to lead the way for East, but the team defense began to frustrate the Panthers and their coaching staff. Pikeview scored just seven points in the fourth, while East racked up 23 points to pull away and seal the victory.
Hamric led the Spartans with 22 points and Dixon added 19. Burns, Braylen Godfrey, and Layne Lambert all contributed six.
Bailey scored 19 for Pikeview, but did not score in the second half.
East will have a rematch with Woodrow Wilson this Saturday, Jan. 18 at the Armory in Beckley.
Scoring by Quarter:
P: 15 16 15 7– 53
GE: 15 20 16 23– 74
