AM
Warriors take out Bobcats
Wyoming East (89) Vs. Summers County (53)
Mar 04, 2014
By J. DANIEL ROLLINS
Register-Herald


BECKLEY — For months there had been talks about what would happen when Summers County and Wyoming East finally matched up.

The two previously-scheduled games were canceled by Summers County, fearing security concerns after former Bobcat and 2013 Register-Herald Player of the Year Taron Ayers transferred to the New Richmond school in December, setting off a wave of trash talk on social media.

But fans who were hoping for a slobberknocker — they will have to wait for the Toughman Contest. Instead, the two schools did what they went there to do — play basketball.

The Class AA No. 4 Warriors beat Summers County 89-53 Tuesday in the Class AA Region 3, Section 1 tournament, ending the season for the Bobcats.

“There was a lot of talk surrounding this game,” Wyoming East coach Rory Chapman said. “I’m glad that it was just a basketball game. There was great sportsmanship shown by both teams. Both teams played hard. There was good sportsmanship. At the end of the night, we all shook hands and moved on.”

The game was all Warriors, from winning the opening tip to scoring the final basket. East led all 32 minutes, seemingly imposing their will on the smaller and younger Bobcats team, which had only one senior on the roster, an injured T.J. Smith.

But despite facing an uphill battle, the Bobcats never gave up, often times battling for rebounds and diving for loose balls, even late in the game when the score was out of reach.

“I liked our kids attitude,” Summers County coach Robert Bowling said. “We got way down and kept playing. They kept getting on the floor for loose balls. If we keep a few of those early ones when they sped up the game on us, we may have hung around. But they’re really good. I take nothing away from them.”

The Warriors played deep into the bench, putting 14 players on the floor of Dave Barksdale Court, getting valuable experience heading into Friday’s battle with arch-nemesis Westside for the section championship.

“Even in the first half we picked up two fouls on both big men (Jordan Hayes and John Morgan),” Chapman said. “I played with backup big guys (David Carte and Michael Hayworth) and I thought they filled the roles nicely.”

Despite getting in early foul trouble, the senior post player Hayes managed to score 17 points.

“He’s tough,” Chapman said. “I tell him all the time, he needs to be the man out there. He’s got to get all the loose balls and get the garbage points. We run some sets for him, but a lot of his points come off of rebounds.”

Hayes knew coming into Tuesday’s game that there was a lot of pregame talk, but he wasn’t going to let it get in his head.

“We just had to zone in and focus on the task at hand,” Hayes said. “Which was beating Summers County.”

Fellow senior Austin Canada matched Hayes’ team-high 17 points. Despite having Summers County on his plate, he knew it was only an appetizer for the main course coming Friday.

“We just wanted to come in and play hard defense so we could match up with Westside again on Friday,” he said. “It’s going to be the same thing as any other time we’ve played. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be hyped.”

When Chapman was asked about taking on the Renegades, he only smiled.

“It’s matchup No. 4,” he said. “We’re both familiar with each other. I was talking to Nick (Cook) yesterday that we could probably play that game with no practice. He knows what we’re going to do. The kids love it. The fans will hopefully pack this place out and this is what sectionals are all about.”

— E-mail: jrollins@

register-herald.com and follow on Twitter at @JDanielRollins.



Summers County (9-12)

Matt Ryan 4 0-0 8, Ashton Garten 4 6-6 16, Donte Ellis 0 2-2 2, Anthony Cales 0 2-2 2, Dacota Thomas 7 3-4 17, Antonio Ford 2 0-0 4. Totals: 19 13-14 53.

Wyoming East (17-4)

Jacob Dulcie 1 1-2 4, Austin Canada 5 4-5 17, R.J. Folden 1 0-0 2, John Morgan 2 3-4 7, Logan Blankenship 1 0-1 3, Michael Hayworth 1 0-0 2, Christian Hedinger 2 4-4 9, Jordan Hayes 7 3-4 17, David Carte 2 2-3 6, Alec Lusk 1 5-6 7, Taron Ayers 6 1-2 13, Michael Bland 0 0-0 0, Dylan Brehm 0 2-2 2, Johnathan Sims 0 0-0 0. Totals: 29 25-33 89.

SC 13 6 15 19 — 53

WE 25 19 23 22 — 89

3-point goals — SC: 2 (Garten, Lively) ; WE: 6 (Canada 3, Dulcie, Blankenship, Hedinger.) Fouled out — none.
Nightly Roundup
Mar 04, 2014 Nightly Roundups
Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Wyoming East 25 19 23 22 0 89
Summers County 13 6 15 19 0 53
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