By Carl Holcomb
Moorefield Examiner
East Hardy Boys Basketball and Krampus stuffed the Hive with coal to build a 20-point lead and stymied the holiday yuletide rally by the Yellow Jackets to collect a 56-44 victory in the Hardy Boys Hardwood Classic entering the Christmas break.
Evan Hamilton scored a game-high 18 points leading a trio of Cougars in double figures, followed by Gideon Good with 16 points and Aubrey McCullough with 13 points.
Shawn Reed paced the Yellow Jackets with a dozen markers, followed by Edison Metheny with 11 points.
The Moorefield student section held up copies of the Moorefield Examiner during the roster lineup announcement for the Cougars and later sang Christmas carols entertaining the packed Hive.
“I am more worried about us. I am happy for the boys getting the win, because this is a tough environment to come play in and we weren’t having our best night. Give credit to Moorefield’s defense for that. I was tickled we were able to work on some things and ending the game running with the lead and we have to work on that. Coming out with the win is nice. It was a good atmosphere and we were ready to compete. We didn’t execute well, but we played hard,” East Hardy coach Chris Hahn remarked.
The Cougars jumped out to a 7-0 lead over a span of three minutes commencing with a jumper by Gideon Good, then a steal by Aubrey McCullough led to a 3-pointer by Trevor Roof, who would create another steal and breakaway layup for that lead.
Shawn Reed put the Yellow Jackets on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws at the 4:47 mark.
East Hardy responded with a perimeter shot from Evan Hamilton.
Moorefield went back to the charity stripe with one more point added by Cyrus Kump.
Roof corralled the rebound and sighed to McCullough for a field goal and a 12-3 lead with 3:12 left int he opening stanza.
Moorefield’s Edison Metheny (2) and Reed (1) added free throws within a span of 30 seconds sandwiching a 3-pointer by Hamilton for a 15-7 score with 1:26 to go in the frame.
The Cougars stalled before Hamilton drew a foul and netted both free throws with one minute remaining.
Moorefield’s Matthew Iman dished to Reed for a layup ten seconds later.
McCullough nailed a buzzer-beating trifecta to put East Hardy ahead 20-9 entering the second period.
Good started the second period with a block and steal which led to a missed shot, then Reed grabbed the carom before the ball was swiped away by Hamilton for another brick.
Iman crashed into the stands saving the ball and took a quick nap on the second row as the Cougars corralled the ball leading to a jumper by McCullough for a 22-9 lead at 5:28.
East Hardy’s Levi Price stole the ball, but Roof was whistled for a charge and Moorefield came back with Metheny drilling a perimeter bucket to cut the deficit to 22-13 at 4:16.
East Hardy’s Shayne Sisler notched a jumper, but the Yellow Jackets responded with a layup by Metheny.
The Cougars outscored Moorefield 11-4 in the final three and a half minutes of the first half to create a 35-19 halftime advantage.
Good made an old-fashioned three-point play for a 28-15 Cougars lead with 2:27 left, then the Yellow jackets answered with a jumper by Reed.
Hamilton hit two free throws on the next East Hardy possession, then the press forced a five second inbounding violation leading to a shot by Good.
Price stole the ball and fed McCullough for a layup to extend the lead to 34-17 with a minute to go.
Price made a diving steal and pass to McCullough, who was called for a charge crashing into the paint.
Hamilton swiped the ball and was hacked leading to one free throw, then Iman snatched the rebound and passed to Jackson Helmick, who drew the foul in the paint setting up two more points for the 35-19 score at the break.
In the first 40 seconds of the third period, the Cougars grabbed a 20-point lead with baskets by Roof and Good sandwiching a turnover, 39-19.
Moorefield chipped away at the deficit as Iman hit a jumper and Reed hauled in a defensive rebound leading to his own 3-pointer for a 39-24 score at 6:31.
“It was a great atmosphere tonight and that’s what you want to have in high school basketball. You want to play in an environment like that with both sides filled up, it was a great atmosphere. I thought we had good energy and played hard. I thought we battled really hard in the second half. I liked our energy. We knew what they were going to do, but we didn’t execute what we wanted to do, especially in the first half. We had too many bad passes and turnovers,” Moorefield coach Scott Stutler noted.
East Hardy got a putback from Good after a defensive block at 5:46.
The Yellow Jackets swarmed back with an old-fashioned three-point play by Iman within 13 seconds, 41-27.
There was a huge crash in the paint as Good crashed to the floor with Reed and Kump, then made both free throws and the latter was waved off due to a violation stepping over the line.
Helmick swatted a shot attempt and snatched the ricochet with a pass to Brendan Fawley who had the ball roll over on his shoulders trying to prevent a steal which looked like a trick play and drew a foul in the process.
Kump netted a basket in the paint for the Yellow Jackets at 3:22, 43-29.
Fawley and Good traded field goals over the ensuing minute.
Hemlock hit a 3-pointer for the Yellow Jacket with a minute and a half left in the third period to close the gap to 47-34.
Moorefield netted a 7-0 run over three minutes and change to commence the final stanza and slice the deficit to 47-41 as Reed made two baskets in the paint, Kump garnered a putback and Helmick added a free throw.
The Cougars hit the rim thrice and committed three turnovers during that sequence which included steals by Moorefield’s Brock Linville and Helmick.
East Hardy stalled the game, then Good scored on a putback to end the run at 2:16.
The Yellow Jackets responded with a 3-pointer by Metheny for a 49-44 score with two minutes to go.
Metheny and Hamilton traded steals, then a Moorefield defender fouled out during a crash in the paint and the free throws went awry.
Good corralled a defensive rebound and there was a play by Hamilton resulting in a technical foul on the Yellow Jackets and three of four charity stripe buckets were made for a 52-44 lead with 1:15 remaining.
The Cougars closed out the game with four more free throws and two steals in the last minute to seal Moorefield’s fate for the 56-44 win.
In JV action, Moorefield took a sleigh ride to victory over the Cougars 46-38 as Luke Stutler led the caroling with 14 points and Edgar Cambero added eight points.
East Hardy JV’s Marshall Walker scored a game-high 16 points in the loss, followed by Mason Wilkins with 13 points.
