Gallery by Heather Belcher
Fairlea – Woodrow Wilson boys basketball head coach Ron Kidd was happy to return to Raleigh County Friday night with a win over longtime rival Greenbrier East.
In the end however, both coaches were left a little frustrated with the play on the floor in the 120th meeting between the schools.
Never trailing in the contest, the Flying Eagles exited Greenbrier County with a 71-59 win, but had to battle some tense moments down the stretch in doing so.
“Anytime you come over here and get a win, it means something,” Kidd said. “We don’t feel like we played well like when we started out. We did some things that we shouldn’t have done. East is not a bad team. Anytime you go to PikeView and get a win and to St. Albans, you are not bad. East’s kids did not quit. They kept playing.”
A 9-2 lead in the first three minutes of the contest turned into a 17-6 advantage after one quarter.
Before two minutes had expired in the second period the lead ballooned to 22-8 on a corner triple from Lucas Raney and a basket from senior Jaylon Walton.
Following a quick timeout, the Spartans responded by scoring eight straight points sparked by a conventional 3-point play from Braylon Godfrey. Reed McGraw then scored on a floater before the run was capped by a long ball from Nathan Dixon.
With the lead quickly down to six points, Woodrow Wilson called timeout and regrouped.
“I saw us fight them off right there. They scored a bunch and cut it to six points. We called that timeout and got it back together,” Kidd said. “Our kids responded in a positive way. We did some things we shouldn’t have right there, but it is only our first game. We have some time to clean that up, but they have to be willing to clean it up.”
The two teams traded baskets, but over the final 4:32 of the first half, it was all Woodrow and it became the decisive stretch of the contest.
“We went back to the way we started the game and was not executing,” Greenbrier East head coach Jared Patton said. “Every team has keys to the game and one of ours was to execute on both ends of the floor. We didn’t do a good job on defense. We didn’t communicate and I don’t think the kids said a single word tonight. On offense, kids were getting lost. You go over plays a million times, but sometimes that happens. Woodrow did a god job on the defensive end and disrupted us.”
The Flying Eagles closed the half on a 10-0 run to take a 34-18 lead into the locker room. Making the run even more impressive was the fact that Woodrow Wilson was playing without starting guard Zyon Hawthorne who was on the bench with two fouls.
“Zyon has been out hurt in the early going, so the others have created a little bit of a bond with how they play,” Kidd said. “We need Zyon on the floor for us to be successful, but I thought our kids responded well when he had to be on the bench.”
Walton paced the visitors in the first half with 12 points, but the veteran coach also saw some opportunities lost by his team with his big man being a force inside.
“I don’t know why we weren’t realizing that more at times. All we had to do was come down and throw the ball to him,” Kidd said. “If they collapse, the way we can shoot, Jaylon is not selfish. He is going to get the ball back out to them. We have to do more things like that inside-out game. When you have a horse like that, we have to get him the ball more often.”
East failed to make up any ground in the third quarter and trailed the Flying Eagles, 51-31 with eight minutes to play.
The lead was 18 points at the 3:51 mark after Preston Clary scored on a stickback, but the battle was far from done.
The home team turned up the defensive pressure and McGraw nailed a pair of big 3-pointers to trim the lead back to nine points with just over a minute to play.
“We are a team that will battle. We are a scrappy team that works hard and doesn’t give up. We didn’t give up tonight,” Patton said. “We weren’t as scrappy as we needed to be, but we have a layoff coming up and that is something that we will work on. We will be better coming out on the other end of this loss.”
Foul shots from Coby Dillon and Hawthorne steadied the ship, allowing Woodrow to escape town with the victory.
“You just can’t spot a team like Woodrow 20 points. Then you are behind and forced to battle every possession,” Patton said. “We would cut it to 16 and it would go to 20 a few times. We just couldn’t get over the hump and just didn’t play well tonight.”
Dillon ended with 20 points, while Walton had 19 and grabbed eight rebounds. Clary added 15, along with nine rebounds. Hawthorne scored 14.
Dixon had 20 points for East and McGraw finished with 14. Both shooters combined for six 3-point field goals.
“Those guys can shoot, but we need them to do more of it. Our ball movement has to be better,” Patton said. “We were stagnant on offense quite a bit and we were predictable at times. Just something we have to work on.”
WW: 17 17 17 20 – 71
GE: 6 12 13 28 – 59
Woodrow Wilson
Zyon Hawthorne 14, Coby Dillon 10, Preston Clary 15, Jaylon Walton 19*, Lucas Raney 3. Totals: 26 16-25 71.
Greenbrier East
Don Penn 3, Brody Hamrick 9, Nathan Dixon 20, Reed McGraw 14, Layne Lambert 3, Dylan Wykle 2, Braylon Godfrey 8.
3-pointers – WW: 3 (Dillon 2, Raney); GE: 7 (Hamrick, Dixon 2, McGraw 4).
