FAIRLEA- If there was a better place to be in the state of West Virginia on Thursday night than the Spartan Gym at Greenbrier East High School, someone point me to it because I want to see it in person.
Greenbrier East welcomed a packed house and a huge line in the parking lot before tipoff, and the Spartans treated the home fans well and defeated the Capital Cougars 55-52 in the opening round of the Class AAA, Region III tournament.
The controversy surrounding this game for the last week brought out some fans that–this is the truth–have not been to a Greenbrier East basketball game in over a decade. It was like sitting in the gym and getting that nostalgia feeling of the mid 90’s and early 2000’s with some of the people that showed up this evening.
The Cougars came into this one ranked 2nd in the state in AAA and their fans had been relatively unhappy, to put it lightly, about the disrespect shown to the team after they were voted in as the sixth seed in the region.
And honestly, they had every right to be.
Like I said on the Greenbrier Valley Sports Talk podcast earlier this week, I understood both sides of the argument. Capital played no regional opponents all year, but they played a difficult schedule and were ranked high, so they easily could have been the first or second seed at the very least. I also understood the Spartans reasoning as one of the teams that voted them near the bottom. Not saying it was right or wrong, just that deep down, I could see the point a little bit.
But on Thursday, both teams took the floor in one of the best environments the Spartan Gym has seen in many years, and all the seed talk went out the window, just like the school’s air conditioning, apparently. Actually, scratch out the fact it felt like it was 100 degrees in the stands, that is another convo for another day.
Capital (17-5) took a quick 1-0 lead, but Nathan Dixon gave the Spartans a 2-1 lead on a short jumper. Capital got a late 3 from Isaiah Scott that made the defensive battle a 10-4 Cougars lead after one quarter of play.
In the second quarter, Dubya Vickers, who has turned into a key piece for the Spartans lately, converted an old fashioned three-point play to open the scoring. Then, East’s Braylen Godfrey and Capital’s Kahsi Morgan traded buckets. Morgan, who has numerous relatives in Greenbrier County, hit a couple big 3s and his second one put the Cougars up 16-10 and the fans they brought were getting loud. But Darius Burns and Godfrey teamed up this time and at one point, combined to score 13 straight points. Burns’ two free throws tied the score at 20-20 with 3:05 left in the half.
“Coming into the game we knew that Capital was going to be very physical. We knew that we had to rebound the ball well if we wanted a shot at winning,” Godfrey, who was the player of the game, said.
“During practice all week, we consistently worked on rebounding and being physical down low. For myself I knew that they didn’t have height underneath the basket, so I tried to use that to my advantage as much as possible. As a team we all knew that they were going to have a run, but it was how we responded to it, and that is what made the difference.”
The Spartans (17-6) settled things down in the third quarter and started to build some space on the scoreboard. A triple from Nathan Dixon put East up 35-28 and also put him over the 1,000-point milestone for his career.
“Couldn’t have hit 1,000 points without my teammates and very thankful to hit it in a game like that,” Dixon stated.
With the Spartans ahead 46-38 and looking to pull away, Morgan drained a long 3 for the Cougars just as the period ended and East’s lead was trimmed to 46-41 after three.
Morgan then poured in eight more points in the fourth, but a crucial turnaround jumper from Godfrey kept the Spartans lead at 50-46. DeShaud Williams then scored underneath a couple possessions later after a receiving a long pass down the court and tied the game at 52-all with 1:36 left.
Finally, with 12 seconds remaining, Hamric hit two free throws that put the Spartans up 55-52. After a couple fouls, Capital got the ball to Morgan with just five seconds left and he fired up a leaning 3 as time expired but it bounced off the backboard and East celebrated with their student body at half court.
“Tonight was a good team win,” Hamric said after the game.
“Everyone contributed and for the seniors it was great to win our last home game. We will enjoy this win tonight and tomorrow, then it will be time to lock in for next week’s game,” he added.
Dixon agreed and shouted out the fans as well.
“Full team effort tonight. Everyone contributed from the team to the community.”
The Spartans shot 48 percent and were led in scoring by Darius Burns with 14. Dixon and Godfrey had 13 each and Hamric scored 10.
Morgan led the Cougars with 17.
Greenbrier East moves on and will play at Shady Spring on Tuesday, March 10 at 7:00 PM. The two teams split the regular season matchups 1-1. The winner of game three will head to Charleston for the state tournament.
