LOST CREEK (WVDN) – Greenbrier West defeated East Hardy 86-70 Saturday evening to claim third place in Division 1 of the West Virginia Hometown Invitational Tournament. The third-place finish was the third in five years for the Cavaliers and capped off a successful week for West basketball. Greenbrier West defeated Class AA #4 Williamstown earlier in the week at the Par Mar Stores Shootout at West Virginia State University.
The tournament, known as the WVHIT, was inaugurated in 2011 as a way for small Class A schools to experience a state tournament-like setting. Greenbrier West joined the tourney in 2013 and has been a fixture ever since. With increasingly more small Class A schools becoming outliers, the tournament has carried the Cavaliers to the likes of Cameron, Paden City, Ellenboro, and Mill Creek throughout the years. John Denver’s “Country Roads” could justifiably be the tourney’s theme song if it were not for right’s fees. The finals weekend, a setting where all participants would meet for a two-day event, was first located in the Summersville Arena and Conference Center. In 2016, organizers moved the finals to Robert C. Byrd high School in Clarksburg. It’s probably only fitting that the event migrated to an even smaller venue in 2021, South Harrison High School. The Cavaliers defeated the home-standing Hawks for the 2021 championship.
Greenbrier West landed in the third-place game as the result of an opening pod loss at Tygarts Valley and a home win over Clay-Battelle. East Hardy arrived by virtue of a win over Meadow Bridge and a loss at South Harrison on the eve of the championship game. The two schools had met three times before, all in WVHIT play, with West taking all three contests. Their last meeting had taken place in February of 2018, a third-place game the Cavaliers won handily.
Greenbrier West got out to the early lead thanks to 6’5” junior Michael Kanode. Kanode was a monster for the Cavaliers scoring nine of West’s first eleven points, blocking a Couger layup, and pulling down two defensive rebounds. Tanner Hagy knocked down a three-pointer to extend West’s lead to 18-4. J.W. Teets responded with a couple of East Hardy free throws, but Braydon McClung matched him from the line for a 20-6 lead. Ty Nickell outrebounded three Cougars and sent a court-long assist to Dale Boone increasing the West lead to 16. Justin Teets countered with an East hardy three-pointer before Boone and Teets took turns knocking down free throws for a 24-11 Cavalier lead after one quarter.
Ball security would become a problem for West in the second quarter and that would help the Cougars claw back into the contest. Dawson Price and Justin Teets did most of the scoring damage for East Hardy with J.W. Teets adding four points. East Hardy would trim the Cavalier lead to three, outscoring Greenbrier West 19-6. Now leading 33-30, the Cavalier lead looked tenuous with Price stepping to the line with a chance to shave the lead to one. Price’s miss led to a West fast break that Braydon was unable to convert on, but Nickell stole the outlet pass and backdoored a bouncer into Braydon that he converted for a 35-30 lead. Chase McClung slid in front of Cougar forward for another steal but his underhanded scoop pass to Braydon was stolen back by J.W. Teets. As J.W. fed the ball to Justin, he was fouled and knocked down both ends of a one-and-one reducing the lead back to three with 1:13 left in the half. Boone and Braydon would both drill threes for the Cavaliers that increased the halftime lead to 41-33.
Both teams seemed destined to set the game of basketball back a few years at the outset of the third quarter, missing countless shots and trading turnovers before J.W. Teets got the ball rolling for East Hardy. Braydon answered with a ten-foot jumper from the right side, but Justin Teets began to warm up himself and knocked down the same shot for the Cougars. Braydon kept creating opportunities for the Cavaliers with steals, but the conversions were not coming quickly. The Cavaliers either were not knocking down field goals or were only hitting one free throw per possession. J.W. Teets drilled a corner three and Noah Lang picked a Kadin Parker dribble clean away and converted with a layup. East Hardy was only down 45-42 when Kanode, fouled going to the basket, sank both free throws for a five-point advantage.
Justin Teets came right back at the Cavaliers, drawing a foul on Kanode as he cut to the basket and laying in a tough, running fall-away jumper. Teets knocked down the foul shot and cut the Cavalier lead to two at 47-45. Nickell took the ensuing inbound coast-to-coast and floated in the lane before letting go of a shot that rolled around the inner portion of the rim before dropping. The Cougars would turn the inbound over, and Chase McClung would slice through the lane for a West layup making the score 51-45. Justin Teets would answer with a layup that crawled over the rim followed by a left wing three-pointer that cut the Cavalier lead to one. Nickell responded with a running tear drop from the left corner taking lead back to three. Lang came back with a Cougar layup that trimmed the lead to one. Braydon, fouled as he attempted to shoot just before the buzzer, knocked down two free throws to give West a 55-52 lead after three quarters.
Braydon started the Cavalier fourth quarter with a deflection followed by a three-pointer to give West breathing room at 58-52. Chase McClung would hit both ends of a one-and-one to build the lead to eight. Braydon would find Parker on a runout that led to a layup and Parker’s first basket of the evening. Price hit a pair of Cougar free throws but Chase would beat him back to the other end, hanging in the air as Price passed by to feather in a layup for a ten-point West lead with 6:37 remaining. Undaunted, the Cougars kept fighting and Nate Smith hit his first three of the game to reduce the Cavalier advantage to seven. Nickell squashed the next East Hardy possession with a steal and uncontested layup to increase the West cushion to nine points.
Moments later, Smith rallied the Cougars again when he drilled his second three of the quarter and the lead was back down to eight. Hagy connected for his second three of the game taking the West lead back to eleven. Price answered inside for East Hardy and with the lead at nine, the McClung brothers score some crucial points. Chase hit the front end of a one-and-one but missed the second shot. Nickell bounded into the air, ripped down the rebound, and scooped the ball out to Braydon on the perimeter. Without hesitation, Braydon drilled the three. Justin Teets would make a pair of free throws and the Cavalier lead stood at 75-66 with 3:20 left.
Kanode slipped inside for a West layup to lead 77-66. One minute later, Braydon sank two free throws for a 79-66 lead. Parker rebounded a missed three and outraced the Cougars to the basket to go up by fifteen. The Cougars were failing to hit their shots and West kept making plays. Braydon sliced to the hoop for a layup and after turnovers by both teams, Kanode found an open lane to the basket off a Braydon McClung steal. With 1:11 remaining and West up 85-66, both teams emptied their benches to finish the game.
The Cavaliers were led by sophomore standout Braydon McClung’s career-high 25 points. McClung shot a scintillating 8-12 from the floor including 3-3 from the three-point arc and a perfect 6-6 from the foul line. McClung added 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 5 steals in the victory to seize Most Outstanding Player honors from the WVHIT organizers. McClung also nabbed Oldies 93 WKCJ Rick Allen Nationwide Insurance Player of the Game honors for his effort.
East Hardy (8-9) 11 22 19 18 – 70
Greenbrier West (12-6) 24 17 14 31 – 86
East Hardy – Justin Teets 24, J.W. Teets 15, Dawson Price 12, Nate Smith 11, Noah Lang 7.
Greenbrier West – Brayden McClung 25, Chase McClung 18, Michael Kanode 15, Dale Boone 7, Tanner Hagy 6, Ty Nickell 6, Kadin Parker 4, Elijah Perkins 4.
3-point goals – EH: 7 (J. Teets 3, JW Teets 1, Smith 3); GW: 6 (B. McClung 3, T. Hagy 2, D. Boone 1)
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