Knights conquer Flying Eagles 65-51
Apr. 3—Woodrow Wilson's turbulent season continued Friday night in the New River CTC Invitational.
Hoping to create its first winning streak of the season, Beckley failed to do so, falling 65-51 to Cabell Midland at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
In what was an ugly game, with both teams combining to shoot 3-of-31, it was the Knights who did the little things such as rebounding and hitting free throws.
"The way we started the game, I think we missed four straight 3s so I called a timeout," Midland head coach J.J Martin said. "I told them we can't start games off by jacking up a bunch of 3s, so after that they really forced the issue by getting to the rim. We did that especially in the second quarter with their big (Ben Gilliam) being out in foul trouble."
The Knights went down 4-0 early and remained stagnant before finally finding a groove. They ripped off 10 straight points on the strength of Chandler Schmidt, who nailed the team's only trey of the evening.
Beckley recovered and trailed 15-10 at the end of the first quarter, but foul trouble plagued the Flying Eagles throughout the half. Center Ben Gilliam was forced to sit and the Knights shot 16 free throws in the first half, connecting on 13 of them to help fuel a 17-4 run in the quarter.
"We were just doing all the little things," Martin said. "Reaching out to our guys, boxing out and running out in transition. We know if we can get stops at one end of the floor we're pretty good. But really I think it all started with our defense. If you noticed all five of our guys were switching and jumping screens and the boxing out was really good in the second quarter. Ben was out so we were able to get rebounds and push it up the floor and that's really when we're at our best."
The Flying Eagles went into the break down 34-18 and played the entire second half down double digits.
For the game they shot 30 percent from the field and were outrebounded 47-39. Cabell Midland fared little better, shooting 36 percent form the field, but got to the free throw line 32 times, converting on 22 attempts.
Beckley will play Class AAAA No. 1 Morgantown Saturday in the New River CTC.
Email: tjackson@register-herald.com and follow on Twitter @TjackRH
Cabell Midland
KK Siebert 14, Jayden Johnson 6, Dominic Schmidt 15, Palmer Riggio 9, Chandler Schmidt 19, Jack Eason 2
Beckley
Keynan Cook 6, Maddex McMillen 9, Elijah Redfern 3, Ben Gilliam 15, Kayden Slay 2, DeWayne Richardson 14, Jace Colucci 2
CM: 15 19 15 16 — 65
B: 10 8 15 18 — 51
3-point goals — CM: 1 (C. Schmidt 1); B: 2 (McMillen, Redfern). Fouled out — none.
