FAIRLEA- In a last-minute decision after both teams had cancellations on their respective schedules, the Greenbrier East Lady Spartans and Greenbrier West Lady Cavaliers decided to just go ahead and play each other and make it a county rivalry game to remember on Monday, Feb. 17.
And that, it was.
After a close three quarters of play where both teams showed out in different ways at different times, it was the Class AAA’s Spartans that came out on top 74-58 in front of a really good crowd at the Spartan Gym in Fairlea.
Both teams feature some talent on their rosters. The Spartans (19-1) have a star-studded back court with Kennedy Stewart and Ava Workman and then there’s Hannah Fuller and Jada Waller who are matchup problems for opponents. The Cavs have a three-headed monster of Brilee Redden, Maddie Fields, and the school’s all-time leading scorer in Preslee Treadway.
And each of those names did some good things on Monday night.
East jumped out to a 10-2 lead and Greenbrier West seemed a little nervous early on. But Fields then converted a three-point play and Redden got to the free throw line a couple times after some transition opportunities and the Cavs (8-8) trimmed the early lead to just 10-6. Then, it was the Spartans who scored six straight with Stewart, Fuller, and Workman each getting buckets and East went back ahead by 10, 16-6. Redden scored at the buzzer and East led 18-10 after one.
Stewart got hot in the second and scored the first five points for East. After that, Treadway got blocked by Fuller who found Waller down the court for a wide-open layup and the Spartans advantage had gone to 25-12 with just over six minutes left in the half. With the Spartans up 33-18 a couple minutes later, Treadway hit two consecutive jumpers around a couple Stewart triples. Workman hit two straight 3s later in the quarter, but a Fields coast-to-coast bucket and two Treadway free throws before halftime trimmed the East lead to 44-30 at the break.
The Lady Cavs continued to hang around in the third and started the second half on a 10-2 run. Treadway scored eight of those 10 points and Fields had the other two on a nice steal and score that made the game 46-40. That forced Spartan head coach Jim Justice to call a timeout and East settled in after. Fuller scored and that was followed by a Workman basket.
It was back-and-forth the rest of the way as East held a 57-45 lead after three.
A 7-2 run for the Spartans opened the fourth quarter in a positive way for them and they built a 64047 lead. The Lady Cavs never got any closer than 14 points the rest of the way as East got a nice win and developed a lot of respect for the play of their Greenbrier counterparts.
Stewart led East with 21 points and Workman added 18. Hannah Fuller played one of her best games of the season and changed the game in the middle. She had 16 points and a couple game-changing blocks.
Treadway added to her career total with 30 points. Fields had 11 points, eight rebounds and seven steals. Redden finished with 12 points.
Scoring by Quarter:
GW: 10 20 15 13- 58
GE: 18 26 13 17- 74
Individual Scoring:
GE- Stewart 21, Workman 20, Fuller 16, Stack 2, Baker 1, Banton 6, Waller 8
GW: Treadway 30, Redden 12, Fields 11, Ward 3, Rhodes, 2
