By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON — Down by 15 points at halftime, the Princeton Senior High Tigers faced a test of character. They passed with flying colors.
Limiting Bluefield to 18 second-half points, Princeton clawed its way to a 53-51 win, ending the Beavers’ perfect season.
“It was all about heart,” said Ryan Meadows, who scored 17 points for Princeton (9-5). “The only way we could win was to play with heart, and they saw what we were made of. Never give up. Never give up.”
“It’s Princeton-Bluefield,” said teammate Hunter Walters, who led the Tigers with 19 points. “When it’s rivals, you can’t be scared of them. You can’t go out and be timid.”
The game was certainly not for the faint of heart. Bluefield (15-1) manhandled the Tigers into 13 turnovers in the first half, and the deliberate Princeton offense connected on only five of 14 field-goal tries.
Bluefield raced out to a 10-2 lead, getting a pair of early threes from Anthony Eades, but Princeton kept it close, trailing 15-14 after the first quarter.
The Tigers’ next seven trips down the floor ended quickly, via three steals, a basket by Tré Hopkins, a travel call and two defensive rebounds by Bluefield.
Princeton’s only other points in the quarter were on a pair of free throws, and the Beavers charged into the locker room with a 33-18 lead at intermission.
Tigers head coach Ernie Gilliard said, “We became very stagnant, and we blew some assignments defensively, and we allowed them to exact their will on us.”
But the Beavers lost focus on offense early in the second half, due to Princeton’s swarming defense that forced six turnovers.
Gilliard drew a technical foul for arguing a call against Meadows with 1:53 left in the third, and Eades sank the foul shots for a 39-28 Bluefield lead. That lead quickly disappeared.
Meadows’ transition layup off a Bluefield turnover sparked a 15-to-4 run, resulting in a 43-43 tie. Fans for both teams in the near-capacity crowd began rising to their feet, staying there for the suspenseful final five minutes of the contest.
The Tigers took the lead for good with three minutes left, when Walters hauled in a rebound and literally pushed the ball back over the rim for a 49-47 edge.
Princeton effectively controlled the ball for most of the remainder of the game. Bluefield got only three more floor shots off, and scored on two foul shots by guard Lykel Collier, while Princeton wrapped up the game going 4 for 4 at the foul line as the home fans yelled wildly.
“It was a classic Bluefield-Princeton matchup,” Gilliard said. “It’s a battle for 32 minutes. For the first 16 we didn’t perform very well, we didn’t execute very well, and they executed exceptionally well.”
“In the second half, we came out and we started executing and doing a better job of defending and we were able to turn it around.”
“It was a great demonstration of character by our kids to stay in there and battle back in the second half, and do the things that we had worked on, and prepared ourselves for, that we felt would work.”
Princeton’s Lamont Lee said, “It was all about learning to play together and not worry about ourselves. On defense we finally got our heads together.”
Walters said, “This is probably one of my favorite games of all time. The fans supported us. They were great.” He had his best scoring output of the season and nine rebounds to boot.
He said in the second half, “We were trying to make Lykel push in. And we had to stop Eades from scoring. In the first half he hurt us bad.”
Eades led all scorers in the game with 20 points, making three of Bluefield’s four treys. Harley Trimble added 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Bluefield head coach Buster Large said, “The bottom line is, a basketball game’s four quarters. We played one half. ... Anytime you’re up 15 points, 16 points, you’re supposed to finish. ... Anytime you don’t do that, it’ll haunt you.”
“You’ve got to realize, this is a young team. Hopefully, we’ll learn from it and try to get better from that. But give Princeton credit. They found a way to win.”
Collier said, “In the first half, we were just playing our game. In the second half, we played into their game, the slow pace. And we let the crowd get into us.”
“The better team [got the] win tonight,” the Beavers guard said. “We’d rather lose now, instead of late into March. They’ve got a good ballclub. We needed a team like this to test us.”
Eades said that in the second half, “We just weren’t taking care of the ball. We just blew it. But that’s OK. We’ll bounce back.”
Large said about the atmosphere in the hot and noisy gym, “That’s just great community spirit from Bluefield and Princeton, and that’s what it’s all about. We told our kids you don’t get an opportunity to play in front of a crowd like this very often.”
Meadows said the home crowd “helped so much. ... They had our back, even when we were down. The community here, they’re just amazing.”
The Beavers travel to PikeView on Tuesday. Large said, “We’ve got a lot of basketball ahead. Even though you lose, you don’t keep your head down, you’ve got to get your head up. That’s what our job is as coaches.”
The Tigers, winners of five of their past six ballgames, play at Hurricane tonight before beginning a three-game homestand.
“That’s a very good Hurricane team,” Gilliard said. “They’re playing exceptionally good basketball right now. ... What we’ve got to do is go down and try to keep focused and stem the tide down there.”
Princeton and Bluefield meet on Feb. 18 for the third time this season.
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com

At Princeton Senior High School
BLUEFIELD
K.J. Manns 1 2-2 4, Harley Trimble 6 1-2 13, Lykel Collier 2 2-2 7, Michael Yost 2 0-0 4, Anthony Eades 6 5-6 20, D.J. Edwards 0 3-8 3. Totals 17 13-20 51.
PRINCETON
Ryan Meadows 4 8-8 17, Tré Hopkins 2 0-0 4, Darnell Palmer 1 2-3 5, Austin Southcott 3 0-0 6, Hunter Walters 5 7-8 19, Kyle Caron 0 2-2 2. Totals 15 19-21 53.
Bluefield.........................15 18 7 11 — 51
Princeton........................14 4 14 21 — 53
Three-point goals: BHS 4 (Collier 1, Eades 3); PSHS 4 (Meadows 1, Palmer 1, Walters 2). Fouled out: BHS, Edwards; PSHS, Meadows.