By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

NARROWS, Va. — Shelor is now open in Giles.
John Shelor scored 28 points and the Giles Spartans opened its season with a 53-43 win over archrival Narrows on Friday night at a packed William B. Patteson, Jr. Gymnasium.
Giles (1-0), which won just four games last season, was led by Shelor, who scored 18 points in the second half, including eight in the third quarter and 10 in the fourth.
He did much of his damage from the free throw line, making 15- of-20 from the charity stripe, including 8-8 in the final period.
“He is a very rounded player, we did what we could on him,” Narrows head coach Chris Gautier said. “We ran a few guys in and out on him and tried to stay fresh, but you have got to give him credit, he got to the hole on us.
“He was 15- of-20. When you are getting to the line 20 times that means we have got to stop penetration a little bit better on him.”
Giles also received nine points from Charlie Stephens and eight by Trenton Ray, while the most inspiring effort may have come from point guard Kyle Chafin, who broke his nose in a car accident on Thursday, but played while wearing a mask.
“He was in a car wreck on the way to practice yesterday and comes out and plays tonight, he hit a big free throw down the stretch,” Giles head coach Seth Davis said. “That is our point guard, that is our floor general and without him we really struggle.
“He was able to pick it up tonight and I am really proud of that kid and I am happy for him that he was even able to be here.”
Narrows (0-2) was led by Chandler Burton, who had 11 points, but was
covered close all night long and made just 4- of-19 from the field.
“He can get hot at any point and when he does you are in trouble and we didn’t let him tonight,” Davis said. “Really we were in his face every shot he took, and that could go either way the next time.
“It could be 12- or-15- of-19 the next time, a really good player though.”
Gavin Givens added 10 points for Narrows, which had to play much of the game without point guard Rodney Perdue, who picked three fouls in the opening quarter.
Narrows, which lost its opener earlier in the week to Eastern Montgomery, fell behind 7-0 on a driving layup by Shelor, and didn’t get its first field goal until Perdue canned a shot with 2:17 on the clock to pull the Green Wave within 125.
“We got into a hole early, we did the same thing over at East Mont the first game of the year,” Gautier said. “These kids battled back on the defensive end, but we have just got to find ways to score.
“That is going to be our focus in the coming weeks is finding ways to get the ball in the hole. Defensively, we are getting the job done.”
Perdue picked up his third foul with 1:44 on the clock, and Will Patteson, who played admirably in his place, got three fouls in less than a minute in the third quarter, and both fouled out in the final period, scoring six points apiece.
The big issue in the last two games is we have played a total of 3 1/2 or 4 quarters in two games with our point guard,” Gautier said. “Other guys have picked up the slack, but that is not their true position.
“They have done what they can do and I am proud of the effort they have given me there, but we have got to have (Perdue) on the floor.”
Giles led by as many as 10 in the game, including 17-7 in the second quarter, and wound up taking a 22-17 lead at the break.
Burton was 2-10 in the opening half, and 2-9 after the break thanks to the defensive effort by the Spartans, led by the 5foot-10 Stephens.
“Charlie played a great game all around,” Davis said. “He is one of our shortest players, but down low he can hold his own, pound for pound he can go with anybody.”
Gautier knows that Burton, who averaged 20 points a game last season, will be the primary target of defenses all year long.
“He is prepared for that, we have prepared him for that all year. He knew that was coming, he is going to get frustrated,” Gautier said. “They are going to try and frustrate him night in and night out, everybody knows he is a big scorer and a big time player for us and he has to go into every game knowing that.
“It is getting there. Our offense has got to run through our point guard and when he is not on the floor, it is hard to get that going.”
Narrows was able to get as close as 33-29 in the third quarter, and pulled within 43-41 on a 3 by Patteson. The Wave’s lone chance to take to tie the score was dashed when a short baseline jumper by Burton missed its mark with 2:18 on the clock.
Giles outscored the Green Wave 10-2 from that point, with Shelor going 6-6 from the free throw line. Stephens added three tosses and Chafin had one for Giles, which was 23-34 from the charity stripe.
“Shelor had a good game, but the man can only have a good game if people get him the ball in the right spots and I thought our guys did a great job of that,” Davis said. “He got a little bit on his own, but this was a well-played team effort all across the board, that is how we won this game.”
The Spartans returns to the court on Wednesday at Graham.
“This is a tough place to win, we haven’t won here in three years at least and it is great to get one back, but we have got them again,” Davis said. “They have got a great coach and a good team, it could go either way back at our house.
“We are looking forward to Graham now.”
Narrows returns to action on Tuesday by hosting Montcalm.
“We are just offensively out of sync right now,” Gautier said. “If we get that going, combined with the defensive pressure we are putting on the ball and in the halfcourt sets I think we will be fine.”

at William B. Patteson Jr. Gymnasium
GILES (1-0)
George Buchanan 1 1-2 3, John Shelor 6 15-20 28, Trenton Ray 2 3-4 8, Charlie Stephens 3 3-6 9, Kyle Chafin 1 1-2 3, Chad Randel 1 0-0 2, Luke Palmer 0 0-0 0, Korey Wilson 0 0-0 0, Wallace Woodbury 0 0-0 0, Jack Meredith 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 23-34 53.
NARROWS (0-2)
Gavin Givens 4 2-2 10, Rodney Perdue 3 0-1 6, Will Patteson 2 1-2 6, Chandler Burton 4 1-2 11, Danny Stevers 1 2-2 4, Kelly Dent 1 0-0 2, Austin Lively 1 2-2 4, Tyler Evans 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 8-11 43.
Giles......................................14 8 14 17 — 53 Narrows................................7 10 12 14 — 43
3-point goals: GL 2 (Shelor 1, Ray 1); NR 3 (Burton 2, Patteson 1). Total fouls: GL 12; NR 23. Fouled out: Patteson, Perdue. Technicals: none. JV—Narrows 33-32.