December high school basketball is a time of preparation for conference battles and hopeful runs to state tournament play late in the season.
Saturday night in Lewisburg, West Virginia, there was a coming of age for the Cave Spring Knights.
Taking on perennial West Virginia 3A powerhouse Greenbrier East, the Knights pushed the Spartans to the limit before falling 88-82 in a hotly contested battle that had the Spartan home crowd applauding the Cave Spring fight.
Not only did the play on the court keep the fans on the edge of their seats, but first-year Cave Spring head coach Jacob Gruse and Greenbrier icon Jim Justice, head coach of both the boys and girls Spartan varsity teams, entertained by going toe-to-toe along the sideline throughout the contest.
In the end it was a record performance by Greenbrier guard Christian Ortiz that saved the day for the Spartans, overcoming a second-half comeback that had Cave Spring in position to pull off the win.
“This was a terrific high school basketball game,” Justice said after the game. “We were able to build that first half lead and that made a huge difference. We were fortunate to hang on. Cave Spring is a very good basketball team.”
In the early going it looked like it might be a long night for Cave Spring.
Riding the incessant scoring of Ortiz, a speedster who was a threat from the perimeter as well as talented off the dribble-drive, Greenbrier jumped out to a 30-13 lead after one quarter. Cave Spring, which trailed by over 20 points early in the second frame, finally slowed the Spartans down, but Greenbrier still led 46-30 heading to the halftime break. By that time, Ortiz had already scored 28 of his game-high 47 points that came up one point shy of the all-time Greenbrier scoring record of 48 held by former Virginia Tech and NBA standout Bimbo Coles.
“We dug a hole early,” Gruse said. “We had a great game plan, but we didn’t do what we needed to do in the first half.”
Cave Spring made some adjustments at the break, most notably on defending Ortiz, and the Knights began their comeback.
“Ortiz is smooth and he’s good,” Gruse pointed out. “We decided there were going to be no more clean looks.”
Cave Spring kept a defender in his back pocket the entire second half, holding Ortiz to a single field goal in the final 16 minutes.
On the other end, Cave Spring played with a purpose and showed more confidence as the third quarter wore on. Mason Reyer’s 3-pointer cut the Knight deficit to single digits with 2:44 left. Cave Spring junior Brody Hicks then put on a scoring show late in the quarter, knocking down a long-range bomb before adding three straight old fashion 3-point plays on drives and harms that had Cave Spring to within 66-62 heading to the fourth quarter.
“It all started with defense,” Gruse pointed out. “The offense is only as good as your defense. We began to get after them. The entire team started playing hard nose Cave Spring basketball. Everyone on the floor wanted the next play.”
Brody Hicks’ 3-pointer tied the game at 72-all with 4:24 left and Cave Spring went up 78-74 at the 3:51 mark after Zac Foutz sank a pair of free throws and Brody Hicks hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe after a technical foul was called on Greenbrier East.
The upset bid took a hit in the final 2 1/2 minutes. Several Cave Spring shots in the paint spun out and the whistles started going Greenbrier’s way down the stretch. Ortiz, himself, shot 10 free throws in that final time frame, sinking 9. For the game, Ortiz shot 31 free throws, 8 more than the entire Cave Spring team. For the game, Greenbrier had the advantage in free throw attempts by the whopping margin of 54-23.
“We got the shots we wanted at the end, they just wouldn’t fall,” Gruse noted. “You can’t be upset about that.”
On the Cave Spring side, Brody Hicks finished with a team-high 32 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Foutz followed with 23 points and 15 boards, while Cager Hicks poured in 10 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Senior Ty Albritton netted 9 points for the Knights.
– Bill Turner
