By BOB REDD
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
FAIRLEA — If post-season basketball is a war, the Princeton Tigerettes lost a battle and they live on to fight again.
Friday night the Tigerettes fell to the Greenbrier East Lady Spartans 59-39 in the Class AAA Region 3, Section 2 championship game before a raucous crowd at GEHS.
Princeton advances to regional play and will travel next week to face South Charleston, the Region 3, Section 1 champions, with a state tournament berth on the line.
Following the game Princeton head coach Charles Angell said, “I told the girls if we play this team 10 times we’re going to beat them maybe three. We knew that it would be tough to play up here in this environment, but I told them if we can win it, it’s a big advantage. But if we don’t, we’re not dead, we still get to play again.”
At the onset Princeton’s speed was key and provided problems for the much bigger Greenbrier East squad. East jumped to a 5-0 lead before Taylor Hamm dropped a three and Kaleigh Barker scored a fast break layup to knot the game.
Two free throws by Adrianna Mitchem later tied the game at eight and Princeton took its first lead with just over a minute to play when Danielle Hall connected on one of two free throws.
A free throw by 6-foot-5 Sydney Nunley tied the game at nine and that is where it stood at the end of the first quarter.
Both teams had trouble finding the basket in the second period. Both tried to establish offensive flow from the perimeter, but lids were on both buckets. Both squads had numerous turnovers and committed many fouls. Princeton’s Jaime Vest was forced to the bench with her third personal midway through the quarter.
The Lady Spartans built a five-point lead, but two free throws by Mitchem cut the lead to three and the home team carried a 20-17 lead into halftime.
The tide changed in the third period. Greenbrier East went on a 7-0 run to open the quarter and Princeton did not score until midway through the stanza when Hall drained a three.
Seconds later, however, she picked up her fourth foul and went to the sidelines.
Despite good defensive play by the Tigerettes, the Lady Spartans powered the ball down low to Nunley and her 6-foot-3 sister Piper to pull away.
Coupled with a pair of threes by Kat Walton and 4-of-6 shooting from the free throw line, Greenbrier East outscored Princeton 27-6 in the period and held a 47-23 lead going into the fourth period.
In the fourth the Tigers lost both Hall and Mitchem to fouls and Barker finished the game with four personals and two other players with three.
Hall led the Tigerettes with 12 points despite fouling out with 3:26 to play in the game. She was the only Princeton player to score in double figures.
Autumn Bradley had a team-high seven rebounds, Hamm pulled down six boards and Barker cleared the glass five times. Hamm also had five assists and three steals. The Tigerettes had seven “team” steals.
“These girls fight so hard and I am so proud of them. They always keep coming,” Angell said. “We’ve played good defense all year, but it’s just one of those things. There were a lot of factors in this. It’s just a shame.”
Lexi Tincher led Greenbrier East with 21 points and Sydney Nunley added 19. East made 16 of 26 free throws in the game.
Greenbrier East moves on to regional play and will host Capital, the winner going to the state tournament.
“We changed the lineup at halftime and put our two bigs in at the same time and they had a real difficult time guarding both of them,” said East head coach Jim Justice. “Princeton’s got a really nice team. I was really concerned about them. In all honesty, we just made a move they couldn’t handle in the second half.”
Looking at his team’s next game, Angell said, “I felt going in South Charleston was the best team in the region … . We’ll have our hands full but we have a chance and like I told the girls, that’s a lot more than we had last year.”

At Greenbrier East High School
PRINCETON (8-14)
Danielle Hall 3 3-4 12, Taylor Hamm 2 2-6 8, Anna Saunders 0 0-0 0, Bre Bradley 0 0-0 0, Adrianna Mitchem 2 2-3 6, Jaime Vest 0 2-2 2, Brittany Long 0 1-2 1, Kaleigh Barker 2 2-4 6, Autumn Bradley 2 0-0 4, Audrey Gallinger 0 0-0 0, Day Day Eaves 0 0-2 0, Totals 11 12-23 39.
GREENBRIER EAST (18-3)
Kari Wilmer 2 0-2 5, Shayla Fox 0 0-0 0, Summer Martin 0 0-0 0, Taylor Hill 0 0-0 0, Chelsie Baker 0 0-0 0, Kat Walton 3 1-2 9, Skylar Blevins 0 0-0 0, Lexi Tincher 6 8-11 21, Lauren Lindsey 0 0-0 0, Savannah Weikle 0 0-0 0, Emily Vance 0 0-0 0, Sydney Nunley 7 5-7 19, Piper Nunley 1 2-4 4, Totals 19 16-26 59.
3-point goals: P 5 (Hamm 2, Hall 3); GE 4 (Tincher, Wilmer, Walton 2). Fouled out: P – Mitchem, Hall. GE – None. Technical fouls: None.