FAIRLEA- After falling behind 10-0 to Class AAAA 7th ranked Martinsburg Lady Bulldogs to start the game, it looked as though the Greenbrier East Lady Spartans early season six game winning streak was going to come to a close.
However, from that point forward, that could not have been further from reality.
East turned up the intensity and controlled the rest of the game on both ends of the floor and defeated Martinsburg 45-31 in the championship game of the Spartan Holiday Classic.
After the Bulldogs’ run to begin the contest behind some hot shooting from Tianna Sanabria, Ava Workman broke the scoreless streak for East with four straight points. But Martinsburg weathered that storm and kept their pace of play up to lead 16-6 after one quarter.
The second quarter is when the game completely changed. Martinsburg couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean from a sandy beach and Greenbrier East used that to their advantage and went on an 11-0 run to take a what seemed like improbable 17-16 lead on a Kennedy Stewart 3.
At halftime, the score was knotted at 19-all.
Hannah Fuller scored inside to open the second half for East (7-0) and a beautiful pass from Sandy Banton to Stewart for a bucket immediately after, made it 23-19. A few minutes later, Banton hit a trifecta and then hit another near the end of the third to give East an 11-point lead at 34-23. That score extended to 36-23 at the end of the period.
Both teams’ defenses played well in the fourth, but it was the Spartans that came out on top in the end in what was a low scoring contest, but the Spartan “D” was swarming as Martinsburg could not get any rhythm whatsoever.
After the buzzer sounded, both teams posed for pictures with Babydog, head coach and US Senator Jim Justice’s beloved dog.
Kennedy Stewart led the Lady Spartans with 15 points and added 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Workman scored 10 points and Banton scored 6 points with 6 boards and Mackenna McClure contributed 5 points and 9 rebounds.
Sanabria paced Martinsburg (4-2) with 14 points.
Scoring by Quarter:
M: 16 3 4 8
GE: 6 13 17 9
