Originally scheduled for Friday night, the game this weekend for the Greenbrier East Lady Spartans and the George Washington Patriots (GW) was moved to Saturday morning, March 27 after a Covid positive test in the school.
After an “all-day Friday sanitization,” according to Greenbrier East head coach Jim Justice, the girls hit the court at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, the Patriots got the best of them 66-31.
East (7-4) had battled George Washington two weekends before on “The Hill” in Charleston before eventually losing, but this one was never close. GW is what the Spartans may look like in a couple of years as the Patriots feature an experienced, veteran batch of players led by all-stater, Kalissa Lacy, where the Spartans are as young as they have been in years.
Lacy opened the game with a 3-pointer and then Macie Mallory hit two consecutive treys to give the Patriots an early 9-0 lead. East got on the board when Brooke Davis took a nice pass from Layla Pence and scored the basket plus the foul.
But the threes kept raining for GW (7-2). Vivian Ho hit one, followed by a long one from Kierstyn Fore. East’s Cadence Stewart got a floater to fall, but Mallory hit the Patriots sixth 3-pointer of the opening quarter at the buzzer, and GW had a 24-5 lead after one.
Lacy and Mallory scored five quick points to begin the second period, but a Brookelyn Morgan three stopped the bleeding midway through, but the score was still 33-8, Patriots.
That score would go to 35-10 at the break.
East played a gritty second half. They never quit, stayed resilient and made some really nice plays.
Davis was a fixture at the free-throw line, Aubrey Glover had some really nice minutes off the bench and the team just continued to hustle. The Patriots like to throw the ball up the court quickly and get out in transition and it worked, but East adjusted better as the contest went on.
Even though this was their second loss to GW in two weeks, East is still building momentum for a fast-approaching post-season in just a few weeks.
Lacy led the Patriots with 21 points and six assists. Mallory had 12 points and Alaira Evans got 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Davis and Stewart led East with nine points each. Davis also had seven rebounds, four blocks and four steals. Pence had 11 rebounds.
East will get a little break before their home game this Friday, April 2 against Sherman, barring any schedule changes the rest of the week.
Stats courtesy of Oldies 93.3
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