WHITE SULPHUR SPGS- There really is not much that has gone wrong for the Class AAA no. 1 ranked Greenbrier East Lady Spartans this season.
And all that continued this weekend at the Battle for the Springhouse Tournament at the Greenbrier Hotel.
After defeating Huntington 68-36 in easy fashion on Friday, the Spartans advanced to the championship game on Saturday against the Charleston Catholic Lady Irish. It was a thriller from the opening tip to the final heave at the buzzer, but in the end, it was Greenbrier East who stayed perfect and defeated the Irish 55-54 to capture the tournament title.
With the stands full of fans and the court lined with them as well, both teams put on a splendid performance to cap what was another good year at the Springhouse.
Each team took turns at running and scoring early and often when the game got underway.
Ava Workman started with a layup to give East (16-0) an early lead, then Mary Rushworth and Ali Wilcox answered for the Irish. A couple possessions later, Kennedy Stewart hit a floater in the lane and that shot was followed by 7-0 run from Charleston Catholic. However, Jada Wallers scored five critical points near the end of the quarter and after one, the score was tied at 16-all.
Hannah Fuller and Waller scored a basket apiece to open the second and those buckets started a 10-1 run for the Lady Spartans sandwiched between a scoring drought for both teams of over three minutes. Rushworth kept the Irish’s momentum alive at the halftime buzzer when she hit a jumper with zeroes on the clock.
At the break, the Spartans led 28-19.
East came out of the locker room ready to put the game away and it looked like that was the most possible outcome when Stewart drained two back-to-back triples for a 34-21 lead.
But Charleston Catholic (10-3) never went away. In fact, they kept getting closer.
Ilyauna Evans hit a 3 and after a Workman layup for East, Molly Messer then hit one from downtown that trimmed the Charleston deficit to 37-30. A couple minutes later, that score trimmed to 37-36 after two Evans free throws and after three quarters, the Spartans were clinging to a 40-37 advantage.
Five consecutive points from Stewart in the fourth extended the Spartans lead to 48-37 as it again looked like Greenbrier East would pull away.
But also again, the Irish refused to quit.
They went on a quick 7-0 run and after a Messer trifecta, the Spartan lead was down to 48-44 with 2:41 remaining.
Two possessions later, Messer hit a runner in the lane that made the score 50-48, Spartans with 1:23 left.
Stewart then went 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to extend the Spartan lead to 55-51, but Catholic’s Aurelia Kirby hit a left wing 3 to cut it back to a 1-point lead.
Waller went to the line for East and missed two free throws, but luckily for the Spartans, there was just 1.5 seconds on the clock and the buzzer sounded as Charleston heaved a full court shot that was not close.
The Spartans celebrated their victory, their first of the season that did not come in double-digit fashion.
Stewart led East with 19 points. Waller had 13 and Workman scored 11. The Spartans overcame a 31 percent shooting night.
Messer led the Irish with 16 points.
East will travel to Nitro this Friday, Feb. 7 for a rematch with the Lady Wildcats. They defeated Nitro at home several weeks ago when Nitro was ranked no. 1.
