CHARLESTON- The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans began state tournament play as the number one seed on Wednesday evening when they met the eighth-seeded Hampshire Trojans at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
East jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never trailed for one second en route to a convincing 64-36 victory in front of a large contingency of Spartan fans in attendance.
The Spartans played their typical game as they have all season. They knocked down some outside shots, played an aggressive pressing defense, and passed the ball well, but Hannah Fuller and Mackenna McClure really stood out on both sides of the court all game long, as did guard Kala Waller.
Fuller’s interior passing to cutters in the lane was as good as it’s been all year and she was rebounding and scoring as well as she has this year as well. McClure drew four jump balls with her aggressive hands-on defense and cleaned up a lot of missed shots around the rim on the other side.
East went on a run early in the second quarter that all but sealed the game.
After a basket from the Trojans’ Lila Eversole, McClure knocked in 1-of-2 free throws. Then, Kennedy Stewart drained a 3 and that followed with a Waller 3. Finally, a steal and score from Ava Workman capped a 9-0 run in about 30 seconds as the Spartans took a 21-8 lead.
The Greenbrier East halftime lead was 29-20.
It was more of the same in the second half as East used that time to extend their lead more and more. They used a 20-6 advantage in the fourth quarter to complete the dominant performance.
Fuller led East with 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Stewart netted 15 points, while Workman scored 11. McClure filled the stat sheet with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 7 steals, and 5 assists. Waller added 9 points.
With the victory, East moves to 25-0 on the season and sets up a date in the semifinals with the winner of Keyser and John Marshall.
Hampshire’s season ends at 16-9.
