FAIRLEA- The Greenbrier East Spartans got off to a hot start on Tuesday night, Feb. 18 and cruised to an easy 75-48 victory over the Independence Patriots.
It was senior night for the Spartans two seniors, Reed McCraw and Donavin Penn, and also for the Spartanettes Dance Team who honored their three seniors—Rozalynn Humphreys, Lacie Frazier, and Kloey Brammer—at halftime.
With the potential of East starting slow due to already beating Independence by 38 points in their first meeting, those thoughts were put to rest quickly in the first quarter.
East (11-7) had five different players score in the opening quarter and was led by Nathan Dixon’s nine points and Brody Hamric’s seven. Both players were hitting from inside and out and paced the Spartans early. East’s defense also stood out and held the Patriots to just nine points in the quarter and the Spartans held a 24-9 lead after one.
The offense slowed down a little in the second, but East got stellar play from Darius Burns and Braylen Godfrey. Burns scored four points including a nice finish in traffic at the rim and Godfrey controlled the painted area on the glass and on defense. After it was all said and done, East led 39-20 and had taken control of the game.
High emotions will be remembered from the third quarter. Halfway through the quarter, the Patriots’ Reid Warden set an illegal screen on Dixon and knocked Dixon to the ground. Warden then received a technical after saying something to the ref. On the next possession, Penn went driving down the lane and Warden hammered him in mid-air and was called for an intentional foul. That got both sides of the crowd into a short yelling match, but the situation got remedied rather quickly after a couple timeouts on the floor. Warden left the game and did not return.
East got several subs in for most of the fourth quarter and played the rest of the night casually and got their 11th victory of the season.
Dixon led East with 19 points. Hamric added 15 and Penn contributed 10.
For Independence (5-9), freshman Brock Green, who was extremely impressive all night, finished with 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
The Spartans will head to Oak Hill on Thursday, Feb. 20 for a bout with the Red Devils.
