By BOB REDD
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — After opening the season with three road victories the Bluefield Beavers took to their “home” court at the Ned Shott Gymnasium, Tuesday night and ran past the Shady Spring Tigers 86-50.

Shady had a bit to cheer about early as they took a 2-0 lead on two technical free throws before a second had expired from the clock.

The game began with those shots after the Beavers had players wearing uniform numbers that were different from that in the official book. After the inbounds play and the clock began, however, it was a different story.

The Beavers scored eight unanswered before the Tigers would go to the free throw line for their next points. The Beavers lead extended to double digits early in the period thanks to a tenacious defense and red hot shooting from Anthony Eades.

When the first quarter horn sounded Bluefield held a 17-6 lead with all of Shady Spring’s points coming from the free throw line.

The Beaver domination continued in the second quarter as the pressure defense led to Shady turnovers. Eades remained hot and dropped in 15 points in the quarter to lead Bluefield to a 50-18 halftime lead.

Eades had 23 points at the break.

In the second half Bluefield’s lead grew as high as 42 points and head coach Buster Large was able to give valuable playing time to all the players dressed.

“They did a really good job,” Large said. “I am very proud of them, very proud of the effort facing one of the best players in the state, Chase Connor, he was an all-state player last year and a tremendous three point shooter, and I just feel like our kids got out and played hard.”

Connor connected on the first two points of the game on the technical shots, but did not score from the field until the fourth quarter and finished with no three point baskets and 12 points.

Ryan Lucas led the Tigers with 19 points.

Eades topped the Bluefield scoring column with 28 points. Lykel Collier popped in 14 and Que Amaker came off the bench to drop in 11.

The Beavers return to action tonight when River View comes calling at Ned Shott Gymnasium.

“We have a chance, going into January to be 5-0 and that would be nice,” Large said. “We’ve got some big games coming up. We’re going to work to get better every day and we’re looking forward to having another game tonight.”

Shady Spring won the JV game 57-45.

JV action between the Beavers and River View tips at 5:30 with the varsity game following at Ned Shott Gymnasium.



At Bluefield State College

SHADY SPRING (2-3)

Rowe 1 0-0 2, Connor 2 7-8 12, A. Williams 1 0-2 2, Chhabra 0 0-0 0, Meadows 0 1-2 1, Buckland 3 1-2 7, Lucas 8 0-0 19, N. Williams 0 0-0 0, Snyder 1 4-4 7, Totals 17 13-18 50.

BLUEFIELD (4-0)

Ponder 2 0-1 4, Amaker 3 1-2 11, Manns 3 1-1 7, Eades 13 1-2 28, Trimble 0 0-0 0, Collier 7 0-0 14, Yost 3 3-3 9, Parker 0 0-0 0, Woodrum 1 0-0 2, Edwards 1 3-5 5, Shorter 2 2-2 6, Totals 35 11-16 86.

Shady Spring..............……6 12 18 14 — 50

Bluefield.....................……17 33 24 12 — 86

Three point baskets: Shady Spring – Lucas 3; Bluefield – Amaker, Eades Technical Foul – Bluefield