Greenbrier East found itself in a precarious position Thursday night in its Big Atlantic Classic matchup with Hedgesville.

The Class AAA No. 1 Spartans had trailed only one other time this year, against South Charleston.

And East had never trailed entering the fourth quarter.

But that was exactly the situation the Spartans found themselves in, down 42-36 to the Eagles.

But undefeated East (18-0) found a way.

They quickly erased the lead and then made plays at the end of the game — namely a steal and layin by Chaunté McDowell with 42.7 seconds left and a big rebound by Bianca André on a missed free throw with 5.5 left to seal a come-from behind 52-50 victory.

“Not to slight Hedgesville in any way, because they are well coached and they played hard,” coach Jim Justice said. “But we were terrible. We had stars who froze up and acted like they didn’t want to shoot the ball. We were just standing around; we didn’t have any energy.

“I told Bianca it looked like she was auditioning for the role of Granny Clampett on ‘The Beverly Hillbillies.’”

But they found a way to keep the dream of an undefeated season alive.

After East fought back to tie the game at 42, it was tied on three other occasions, the final time at 48-48.

Hedgesville got a turnover, but McDowell stole the ball right back just over midcourt and went coast-to-coast for the lay-in.

“That was big,” said Hedgesville coach Ben Merica. “We just had too many freshman flareups and mistakes. In a two-point, one-possession game, those things come back and haunt you.”

Twice East missed the front ends of 1-and-1s with that 50-48 lead.

On the second, 6-foot-6 Cheyenne Hooper got to the board and got the ball to André. She made 1 of 2 free throws but East, with fouls to give, allowed Kelsey Shaw to snake down the lane for a basket.

“We had four fouls to give and I told them (during a timeout) when to foul,” Justice said. “We were supposed to foul at halfcourt and we fouled in the backcourt and only 2.1 seconds ran off. I don’t know how (Shaw) got to the basket.”

Hooper was fouled with 7.1 seconds left but missed both free throws. But André came up with the rebound. She made 1 of 2 free throws to make it a two-point game with 5.5 seconds left.

“That was big,” Justice said. “She came up with a big play when we needed it. Then she missed the free throw.”

But a 40-foot shot by Kristen Nunn was off the mark, allowing East to escape.

“I tell you, it’s just good to get out of here with the win and we were fortunate,” Justice said. “(Hedgesville) is a good team and their girls played hard.”

Greenbrier East trailed 28-23 at the half.

The Spartans struggled out of the chute, hitting on just 9 of 30 shots (30 percent) and just 3 of 17 on 3s (17.6 percent).

“Our girls have the green light when they are open shots,” Justice said. “Our plan was to go into Cheyenne because of the size mismatch but they did a good job of bunching everybody in low and when she’d get the ball, she was 8 to 10 feet from the basket.”

Meanwhile, Hedgesville was 4 of 8 from 3-point range.

Actually, the Spartans took a 21-16 lead early in the second quarter, scoring the first seven points of the period.

But over the final 5:51, Hedgesville used a 12-2 run to end the half with the lead.

Anna Hammaker finished with 16 points and André had 15 and 11 rebounds. Hooper had 14 rebounds.

For Hedgesville, which played just five players, Nunn had 14, Bianca Creamer 11 and Shaw 10 and 15 rebounds. Tyana Monette had 16 rebounds for the Eagles, who outrebounded East 48-40.

The Spartans move on to face University Saturday in a girls AAA championship game at 7:20.

Hedgesville faces George Washington at 4 p.m. today.

— E-mail: demorrison@register-herald.com



Greenbrier East 52, Hedgesville 50

Hedgesville (13-4)

Kristen Nunn 5-15 0-0 14, Bianca Creamer 5-12 0-1 11, Kelsey Shaw 3-13 0-0 6, Tyana Monette 5-11 0-1 10, Carly Elliott 4-10 0-1 9. Totals: 22-61 0-3 50.

Greenbrier East (18-0)

Elizabeth Romeo 0-5 1-2 1, Chaunté McDowell 4-13 0-0 9, Anna Hammaker 6-14 2-4 16, Bianca Andre 5-16 2-5 15, Cheyenne Hooper 1-5 1-4 3, Chloe Honaker 3-9 0-0 8, Cassie Ford 0-0 0-0 0, Maddee Carroll 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-62 6-15 52.

H    16    12    14    8    —    50

GE    14    9    13    16     —    52

Three-point goals — H: 6-15 (Nunn 4-8, Creamer 1-4, Elliott 1-3); GE: 8-37 (Romeo 0-3, McDowell 1-6, Hammaker 2-8, Andre 3-12, Honaker 3-8). Rebounds — H: 48 (Monette 16, Shaw 15); GE: 40 (Hooper 14, Andre 11). Assists — H: 16 (Nunn 7); GE: 14 (Romeo 4, Andre 4). Fouled out — none.