Princeton wins third game in row

Princeton wins third game in row

By JED LOCKETT
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON—At first glance, one might mistake Greenbrier East head boys’ basketball coach Jerry Bradley for Hollywood hot shot Henry Winkler. Unfortunately, the Spartans were not experiencing one of their happy days as they dropped a 69-46 decision to the Princeton Tigers Tuesday night.

Princeton gained control of the game in the first half and never relinquished it. Offensively, the Tigers probed the inside of the Greenbrier East defense, getting many of their points on dribble penetration. Defensively, they pressured the Spartans into 14 first-half turnovers which more often than not were turned into Tiger points. A 16-0 run in the second period by Princeton head coach John Flornoy’s team decided the game.

“John’s kids did a good job of mixing it up with their pressure,” Bradley admitted. “We’re kind of a young team. So we didn’t recognize it very well and certainly didn’t execute against it very well.”

Curtis Harris led the Spartans with 20 points, but was the only bright spot in Greenbrier East’s dismal offensive output. Javon Carpenter led the Tigers with 16, but the story really was not who scored for the Tigers, but how many players scored for the Tigers.

“That means (the scoring) was pretty dispersed,” Flornoy quietly pronounced. “That’s not a bad thing. That means they pass the ball to each other. They’re a pretty unselfish bunch of kids. There’s no one guy that you can take out. There’s somebody that can pick it up anytime.”

The 0-3 Spartans play their first home game Thursday night against Riverside and their second home tilt Saturday against George Washington. Bradley knows that much improvement is needed on both sides of the ball.

“We’re just struggling to score right now,” Bradley explained. “We’ve got to find more points and like I’ve always said, we don’t control anybody defensively. They controlled the game defensively and the team that does that always wins.”

While Greenbrier East has lost their last three, Princeton has won their last three to improve to 3-2 and is beginning to look like a tough team to beat going into their next games at Capitol on Friday and at home against Cabell Midland. But like Bradley, Flornoy knows that there is still work to do.

“We gotta rebound the ball even better,” Flornoy added. “We’ve got to do a better job of boxing out. I’m not worried about us playing hard, I know we’ll do that. The little things are big things. Little bitty things can end up being big, big things in games.”



Greenbrier East (0-3)

Harris 7-20 5-8 20, Lucas Lemine 2-5 6-6 10, Calhoun 2-7 2-2 6, Hollar 1-7 2-4 4, Schriefer 0-1 0-0 0, Valley 2-6 0-0 4, Keys 1-3 0-0 2, McClintic 0-0 0-1 0, Shirley 0-1 0-0 0; Totals 15-50 15-21 46.

Princeton (3-2)

Carpenter 8-11 0-0 16, Justin Jewell 4-7 1-4 11, Jordan Goodwin 5-8 0-0 10, W. Gardner 4-5 1-1 9, Minnix 3-7 1-2 9, A. Gardner 4-10 0-0 8, Winfrey 2-8 0-2 4, Nielo 0-1 2-2 2, Gallimore 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Lineberry 0-6 0-0 0, Sho-Johnson 0-1 0-0 0; Totals 30-65 5-11 69.

Greenbrier East........................11 11 13 11—46

Princeton..................................17 24 18 10—69

3-Point Goals: GE 1 (Harris 1); Princeton 4 (Jewell 2, Minnix 2). Turnovers: G.E. 24, Princeton 19. Total fouls: G.E. 11, Princeton 18.