FAIRLEA- The Greenbrier East Spartans are truly “clicking” at the right time.
On Thursday, Feb. 27, East hosted the Class AAA’s 3rd ranked team, the Shady Spring Tigers in front of a large, hostile, and rowdy crowd and came away with an impressive 67-56 win.
With the victory, the Spartans avenged a 16-point loss to Shady back on Feb. 7.
The game got off to a frantic start with both teams playing chaotic defense and going back-and-forth on the offensive end.
A 3 from Nathan Dixon put East ahead early 5-2 and a couple minutes later, he gave his Spartans a 10-7 lead on his second triple. East went up 12-7 on a nice feed from Reed McCraw to Donavin Penn for two and then it went to 14-10 on a leaner in the paint from Dixon.
At the end of one quarter, however, the Spartans trailed 17-16.
The Spartans continued to lean on their junior leading scorer in the second and Dixon responded with 10 points in the period and finished the first half with 18. Six Spartans scored at least one bucket in the second as well–including a thunderous two-handed jam from Braylen Godfrey– as their balanced play was starting to show out. Jalen Bailey and Jack Williams did what they could to keep the Tigers close and finished the first half with 11 and six points, respectively.
At the break, the Spartans held a solid 36-28 lead.
“Day in and day out we work hard in practice and go through scenarios just like it was tonight, and the kids made great adjustments throughout the game,” Spartan coach Jared Patton said after the game.
Shady coach Ronnie Olson made it clear to his team in the locker room that Dixon was no longer going to beat them. They had a player following him around like glue when the third quarter started, but other Spartans stepped up. Brody Hamric got in the lane a couple times and converted two three-point plays, McCraw scored four points, and Penn knocked in an open right wing 3. At the time, it looked like Olson, and his visiting Tigers were going to tip their proverbial hats to Greenbrier East and go back to Shady with their fourth loss of the season.
But it didn’t happen as quickly as the Spartans were hoping.
Shady came roaring back and opened the fourth quarter on a 14-2 run with key buckets from Bailey and Gabe Short that trimmed the East lead to just two points at 56-54 with just 3:25 left in the game.
We quit playing our game for a little bit. They kind of sped us up a little bit, they were pressing us, we got out of rhythm on offense. They (Shady) did a great job. We just had to settle back in and finish the game strong,” Patton explained.
And that’s what Greenbrier East did.
With just 2:10 left, Dixon grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed shot from Penn and put it back in for his first field goal of the second half and East extended their advantage to 58-54. Bailey then lost his dribble out of bounds and the Tigers turned it back over to the Spartans. Godfrey then crashed an offensive rebound and was fouled on the putback attempt. He made 1-of-2 and put the East lead at 59-54 with 1:50 to play. Godfrey scored a layup with 59 seconds remaining and just seven seconds later, Shady’s star, Williams, was called for charging and fouled out of the game.
East was good from the line down the stretch and closed out their biggest win of the season.
Dixon led the Spartans with 21 points and McCraw had 10. Hamric, Godfrey, and Penn all scored 10 apiece.
“Dixon’s a gamer and there’s no way he would have let us take him out of the game tonight,” Patton said when talking about Dixon’s tweaked ankle in the fourth.
Bailey scored 21 to lead Shady Spring.
“I want to give kudos to our sixth man tonight. I’m glad they showed up, I’ve been waiting on them all season, Patton said.
“I just want to give them some kudos and thank them for coming out tonight, Patton concluded.
Greenbrier East closes out their regular season this Saturday at home versus Oak Hill. The Spartans just beat Oak Hill earlier this week by 23 points on the road.
Scoring by Quarter:
SS: 17 11 12 16- 56
GE: 16 20 18 13- 67
