FAIRLEA- Coming into Friday night’s regional contest with Independence, the Greenbrier East Spartans had already defeated the Patriots twice this season and did so in dominating fashion. East won at Independence 82-44 and then defeated them in Fairlea a couple weeks ago, 75-47.
But those scores got thrown out the window because Friday was completely different.
After some physical play back-and-forth and some timely shots near the end, the Spartans escaped the Patriots with a closer than expected 55-50 victory.
With the Spartans missing Braylen Godfrey, their force in the middle, the Patriots looked early and often to freshman Brock Green. Green, who had 21 points and 15 rebounds in the two teams last meeting when Godfrey was available for East, took advantage of the big guy’s absence on this evening. After the Spartans went up 7-0, Green scored the Patriots first bucket. A few possessions later, he hit a runner, then he was fouled twice and sank all four of his free throws. At that point, Independence led 10-9 and the Spartans were looking for an answer for Green. An offensive rebound putback score for Nathan Dixon put East up one, then a Reed McCraw 3 gave them a 14-13 lead a couple minutes later. Brody Hamric settled things down for the Spartans with a steal and score with just over a minute left, then he hit two from the charity stripe and the Spartans held a 19-18 lead after one.
Both teams scored just eight points in the second as the defenses picked up their intensity to another level. Each team found points hard to come by, but Greenbrier East (15-7) got a nice boost off the bench from Gabe Neal who scored three points including a nice floater in the paint. The Pats’ Ashton Arthur hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to make the East lead still just one point, 27-26, at halftime.
Indy coach Shawn Jenkins made his message clear at intermission: Go inside to Green to start the second half.
They got the ball to him, and he was getting to the basket easily and drawing fouls, but the Spartans caught a break because the freshman could not convert his free throws. He went 1-for-6 from the stripe in the first three minutes of the third and immediately after that, the Spartans found a pulse. Layne Lambert hit a huge corner 3, Dixon followed with one of his own, and then Dixon scored off an offensive board and the Spartans took a 37-30 lead and forced Independence to call a timeout. A Dixon floater and a score from Hamric gave East their biggest lead of the night at 41-31, but the Pats were as pesky as gnats in a kitchen sink. Arthur scored four straight to close out the third and East’s lead was back to just six points at 41-35.
Arthur knocked in a mid-range jumper with 2:08 left in the game and tied the score at 49-all, but two Hamric freebies gave the advantage right back to the Spartans. On the ensuing possession, Indy’s Sylas Nelson looked to have a clear path to the basket for a layup, but Sam Hawver got a big block and denied him the score. That block played a role because in the next three East possessions, they went just 2-for-6 at the foul line and left the door open for the Patriots (6-13) to come knocking. They would cut it back to 53-50 after a Kaden Bradbury foul shot, but that would be as close as they would get. Hamric missed a free throw with nine seconds left but got his own rebound and Dylan Wykle dribbled out the clock to seal the Spartans victory.
“You’ve got to learn how to win many different ways and tonight was one of them,” Jared Patton told the Greenbrier Valley Channel after the game.
“They definitely executed on both sides of the ball better than we did and that’s just something to give us to work on this next week,” he added.
Dixon led the Spartans with 17 points and Hamric added 14.
For Independence, Arthur led the way with 18 points and Green contributed 16.
The 3rd seeded Spartans will now have to travel to Ripley on Thursday night, March 13 to take on the no. 2 seed Vikings. The winner will head to Charleston for the state tournament.
Additional Photos by Brandon Baker:
