FAIRLEA- The Greenbrier East Spartans boys’ basketball team hosted senior night on Friday, February 27 versus Oak Hill and then wrapped up their regular season with a matinee Saturday finale against the Hurricane Redskins.
Senior night started off with a nice tribute to five seniors–Brody Hamric, Nathan Dixon, Gabe Neal, Sam Hawver, and Dubya Vickers–who have been key contributors and team leaders this season for the Class AAA, Region III 3-seed Spartans.
Dixon led the way against the Red Devils with 22 points. Braylen Godfrey added 17 points and Brody Hamric scored 15.
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Vs. Hurricane, Saturday
On Saturday, the Spartans concluded their regular season in what was arguably the top, most exciting game they have played all year when they defeated Hurricane 59-56 in an overtime thriller.
The first half, however, was anything but.
Greenbrier East shot just 6-22 in half number one and just could not get anything going as they trailed 24-20 and looked completely out of sync.
The third quarter was not a whole lot better for the Spartans as they got outscored by one point, but the momentum felt like it slowly started to shift near the end of the period.
Fast forward to the end of regulation with seven seconds left on the clock and the Spartans down 48-45, East’s Darius Burns brought the ball up the court, stopped at the top of the key and buried a 3 at the final buzzer that sent the contest to overtime and gave Greenbrier East a lot of hope when just minutes before, seemed like they had none.
In the waning moments of overtime, the normally sure handed Nathan Dixon, who suffered a scary fall earlier in the game that potentially caused some uneasiness, missed six consecutive free throws which continued to leave the door open for the Redskins.
Hurricane finally took advantage when Carson O’Dell hit a runner from the left hash to tie the game at 56-all with just five seconds left. Then, East inbounded the ball to Hamric who took a couple dribbles toward the left side of midcourt, and he heaved a 45-footer from just beyond half court that banked in and gave the Spartans a satisfying final regular season victory as the gym went nuts.
Hamric led the Spartans with 24 points and Burns had 16 (11 in fourth quarter and OT). Dubya Vickers also played extremely well and did a lot of little things to keep the Spartans within striking distance all day.
O’Dell led the Redskins with 26 points.
Up next for the Spartans is a regional opener on Thursday night, March 5 with the sixth-seeded Capital Cougars. The Spartans got the 3 seed and there has been a lot of controversy around the Class AAA, Region III bracket so it should, at the very least, be a highly entertaining atmosphere at Spartan Gym.
Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM.
