By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — The Class AA state tournament is one win away for the Bluefield Beavers.
That one win won’t come easy. Not only is Wyoming East (19-2) the state’s top-ranked team, but the Warriors have made three straight trips to the championship game, winning it all in 2007-08, and losing to Ravenswood in ‘09. They also won the title in ‘02.
“They deserve to be number one in the state,” Bluefield second-year head coach Buster Large said. “I feel like to get to Charleston, to be the best you have got to beat the best. We’ll just see what happens tomorrow night.”
Bluefield (16-7) will travel to New Richmond tonight for a Region III contest, with the winner of the 7 p.m. tip earning a trip next week to Charleston. The loser calls it a season.
“We’ve got the potential if we put it together tomorrow night to match up with them pretty good,” said Large, whose Beavers lost its lone encounter to Wyoming East, 64-60, on Feb. 23. “Everybody says that certain teams match up better with certain people, well, we match up better with Wyoming East than anybody with our guard play and our inside play.
“It’s been interesting all year, but we are going to have to play a complete game. That is my biggest concern tomorrow night. I know for a fact that they are one of the most disciplined teams I have ever seen as far as offensively, and they play sound defense and they just don’t make mistakes.”
Bluefield, which is coming off a 69-60 Section 2 championship game loss to PikeView, is in a region that includes four teams that have been ranked all season. The Beavers are 1-6 against those clubs, including 1-3 with the Panthers, 0-2 against Oak Hill and 0-1 with the Warriors.
The Beavers’ other loss was an overtime decision at Graham.
“The sad thing about it is we have four teams here that have been ranked in the top 10 all year long and two teams are obviously going to be left out,” said Large, of Bluefield, which won consecutive state titles in 1995-96, and finished second in ‘97, ‘99 and 2006. “People in this area are very proud of the basketball talent that has been displayed this year and the teams that have been put together here in the area.”
Bluefield has been led by senior point guard Craig Ponder, who leads the Beavers with 17 points and three assists a game. Fellow guard Kyle Harris is averaging 13 points and three assists, while 6-foot-5 Joe Woodrum has contributed seven points and seven rebounds a contest.
“We have had a 5-to-7 man rotation all year long,” Large said. “Joe Woodrum has over 155 rebounds for this year. I don’t know of anyone around that is even close to him, and we’re talking about a young man that has not even started all year. He’s a tremendous inside player for us and he is just getting better and better every game.
“We’ve got guys like Courtney Wallace, who has really stepped it up, J.D. DeWitt, who came off the bench last week and hit four 3-pointers, Damien Price has played consistent for us all year long and Byron Steptoe, at times, has been our leading scorer.”
All will have to be at their best against Wyoming East in what is expected to be a gymnasium packed with upwards of 2,200 spectators, with those advance ticket holders who can’t fit into a seat able to watch on video elsewhere in the school.
“I’ve been trying to tell these young men what kind of environment they are going to be in tomorrow night,” Large said. “We’re talking about an absolutely jam-packed facility because people down there just love their basketball.
“We’re going to have to be mentally tough. We are going to have to play well, not only offensively and defensively, we’ve got to play smart. We cannot be out of control. We have to play what I am saying right now is our most complete game of the year, and I think we are very capable of doing that.”
Big crowds are nothing new for either team. Bluefield and PikeView played in front of a huge crowd last Friday at Princeton, forcing officials to quit letting anyone else in the door.
“I’ll tell you I’ve never seen so many people talking about basketball lately, I don’t know if it’s been with the weather and everybody has not been able to get out or what,” Large said. “I’ll tell you, when I talk about that crowd we had on Friday, it gets me to thinking about the days of Rod Thorn (who played at Princeton).
“Those were days when the games were packed at 6 or 6:15 before the games started. That is what it is all about and we’re happy to be a part of it. We’re going into a barnburner tomorrow night.”
And not just because of the crowd. Wyoming East — whose only losses have been to Class AAA Logan (90-73) and Oak Hill (55-51) — is paced by 5-10 junior guard Chase Morgan, a transfer from Woodrow Wilson, who is scoring 21.3 points a game.
The Warriors won the Section 1 title with a 60-36 rout of Oak Hill last Saturday, improving to 3-1 this season against the second-ranked Red Devils.
“He is outstanding. He is an exciting player to watch and he does a lot more than just handle the ball,” Large said. “He is a tremendous shooter, he’s a tremendous playmaker and it seems like when he goes they go.”
That’s not all. Senior guard and talented golfer Evan Muscari contributes 14 points and six assists a game, while Alex Webb tosses in 12.3 points an outing.
‘They have some great talent on their ball club,” Large said. “We’re going to have to play extremely well, I’m not saying we can stop those three, but we’ve got to try and slow them down. It’s got to be in the 50s and 60s for us to have a chance.”
These clubs met in February, with the Warriors overcoming a five-point halftime deficit with a 7-0 run coming out of the break for a 21-12 third quarter advantage.
Morgan led the Warriors with 23 points, while Marcus Schofield added 13, Muscari tossed in nine and Webb added eight. Bluefield was paced by Steptoe with 20 points, 17 by Ponder and 11 from Harris.
“You have got to play four quarters, if you look at our weak points this year, one has been maybe a lack of focus one quarter or out of control a little bit offensively up and down the court,” Large said. “With those two things, the good teams are going to be beat you because you have got to be disciplined in those big games.
“You don’t have to rush the shot, you have got to work for it, you’ve got to work hard on defense and that is what we are going to have to do.”
The task ahead is clear. Win and move on, with dreams of playing for a state championship in a little over a week.
“I just think we could be the sleeper team in this tournament, I just feel good about it,” Large said. “I know that we have good kids, we have kids that listen and kids that learn and kids that have great desire and I just like our chances...
“It’s just March Madness. Everybody is trying to get there, trying to get to the show in Charleston, and we want to be a part of it. That is our goal.”
— Contact Brian Woodson
at bwoodson@bdtonline.com
