The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans defeated Midland Trail Tuesday, Dec. 1, by a score of 81-28. The Spartans never trailed in the contest, leading by as many as 55 points. Midland Trail is a Class A school; Greenbrier East is Class AAA, So the game was something like a warmup for the Lady Spartans.
Katie Wilmer and Lexi Tincher tied for most points, with 18 each. Both of them scored half of their points by hitting three three-point shots. Kiara Smith added 10 points. Three Spartans – Piper Nunley, Kat Walton, and Skylar Blevins – contributed eight points apiece.
Taylor Hill pulled down nine rebounds; Lauren Lindsay had eight. Kiara Smith led in field goal percentage, hitting four of her seven shots.
Before the game started, Midland Trail Assistant Coach David Cook said, “The keys to the game will be controlling the ball, control the tempo. They’ve got some height. We got to box out. We have to shoot the ball. We prefer a slow tempo. I figure they’ll want to speed it up.”
After the game was over, Midland Trail Head Coach Matt Harper said, “To start with, we were a little scared, coming out here. We didn’t play up to our potential. We got behind and couldn’t catch up. Played well at times; played well in the second quarter, a little bit of the third quarter. It fell apart after that.”
The Patriots only scored two points in the first quarter, but hit eight or nine points in the last three quarters. In the second quarter they were outscored 11-9.
About Greenbrier East, Harper said, “They’re big. They swarm the ball. You get the ball, everybody’s on top of you. They work hard at getting kicked balls, and trapping. They’re going tobe good this year.”
Greenbrier East’s Head Coach Jim Justice said, “I was really pleased, to tell you the honest truth. Versus the way we played at Blacksburg, I was really pleased tonight. I was pleased with our positioning. We were guarding in the right position; we were in the right position offensively. We ran our stuff well with a lot of speed, a lotof intensity. I was really pleased with the way we played.”
“To play to our strengths, this team is not really big, but we’ve got the speed, and we’ve got to play an up-tempo pace.”
Senior guard Kat Walton, #21, with four rebounds, five assists, and six steals said, “It was a lot of fun; it was a good one to start on. I was afraid we were going to come out here and be lazy and not play too good. We had two scrimmages and played kind of slow. We came out and had a good season opener. We were quick on defense,which was good. We did alright shooting from the outside.But we kind of struggled on our foul shots. But our defense really helped.”
Senior guard Lexi Tincher, #23, had two rebounds, one assist, and six steals, “I thought it was really good. It was a great way to start the season. Our defense was very good. We got a lot of steals right off the bat. And points. And I think all of our shots were falling. Pretty goodoutside shooting, definitely to start it off it was good,” she said.
Senior forward Taylor Hill, #14, who had three points, one assist, and two steals said, “I thought we started off really well for the season. We definitely came out with our best. Ourdefensetook over in the beginning of the game and we had it from there.”
Junior forward Megan Lindsay, #43, had one assist and one steal: “We had some really good chemistry at the beginning of the game. We worked really well together. This is a team that … we have really nice chemistry, and I think that’s the best quality in a team. On the floor and off the floor. We’re all best friends, we all get along well,” she said.
Junior center Lauren Lindsay, #33, had two points and one assist:“I thought wehad really good chemistry and we worked well together. We’re better than we thoughtwe were, I guess, but we don’t need thisto go to our heads. We need to work harder, and get better,” she said.
Junior center Piper Nunley, #50, with one assist and four blocked shots said, “It was really good, we stepped it up from practice. We all had great chemistry in this game. That made it better for everybody. I tried to help everything, to do my best, and that’s all that matters.”
The Lady Spartans next game is against Hedgesville, Friday, December 4, at 7:30 pm. Then they play Buckhannon-Upshur Saturday, Dec. 5, at 3:30 p.m.