Defense and sharpshooting lead Tigers to title game (With Gallery)

May 7—CHARLESTON — This season has yielded a lot of firsts for the Shady Spring boys basketball program.

The Tigers won their first sectional title in 20 years. They won their first regional championship in 27 years. They won their first state tournament game in school history.

And now they'll play in their first state championship game.

Braden Chapman scored 22 points while brother Cole dished out nine assists as the Tigers pulled away in the second half to beat Winfield 68-51 Friday morning in the Class AAA semifinals in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.

Behind a suffocating defense, the Tigers limited Winfield's offense, swallowing any openings in the half court.

"Everybody wants to talk about how we run the floor, how we share the ball." Shady Spring coach Ronnie Olson said. "How we shoot 3s, but what we hang our hat on and what doesn't get noticed is how we defend. And what we've done, that's what our program's about — defending. And we knew. It bothered us that people tried to discredit our first-round game.

"We played against some guys that were down, but we knew we were a defensive team. We were going to be tough to deal with. So for them to come in and play like this, we knew what they were going to run. They run a lot of similar stuff to us, so it made it kind of easy on us."

Defense aided the Tigers, but it didn't hurt that their 3-point shooting followed them to Charleston.

After Winfield's Ethan Kincaid opened the scoring with a jumper, Shady reeled off eight straight, powered by back-to-back 3s from Cameron Manns.

"He didn't take any shot out of rhythm," Olson said. "He took exactly what the defense gave him. And these guys have no problem with that. We talked about them pressing up on Todd (Duncan) a little bit. We'll carve them up if that's what they choose to do. Cam stood ready and he knows his role."

The Generals battled back though, tying the game at 8-8.

Shady center Jaedan Holstein then joined in on the action, scoring on two free throws, while Braden Chapman nailed a shot from downtown.

The Tigers took a 17-12 advantage into the second quarter, but the Chapman twins both played their own part in dicing the Generals' defense.

Braden pushed the lead to eight with a 3, while Cole added a layup and a 3 to make it a 27-16 game.

That was in addition to the latter's role as a distributor, as he piled up six of his nine assists in the first half.

"I'm just able to drive and kick," Cole said. "I'm able to get by my defender and get it to the open man. Like coach said, the best shot is the open shot and we're able to have that."

The Generals' final bucket of the first half came with 1:49 left, but the Tigers used a weave to burn all but five seconds, finding Manns in the corner for his third 3 of the game.

"That's not our style of play, but if they're going to back off and give us fluff defense like that, there's no reason," Olson said. "Worst case scenario we go in up 10. Best case scenario we go up 12 or 13. We probably could've stalled the whole game the way they weren't pressuring up. I think you saw once they did press up we were able to drive and go by them.

"I knew those guys could do it and Cam did a great job on that possession having a wide open shot and kicking right back out and trying to execute the game plan."

At the half, the Tigers had forced nine turnovers, seven coming off steals.

The Generals came out of the break with a 4-0 run to cut the deficit to single digits, but Shady answered with a 5-0 run to push it back to double figures. Winfield eventually cut it to 12 on a 3 from Ethan Kincaid, but the defense of the 6-foot-5 Holstein made life difficult for the Generals.

When he wasn't guarding the rim he was switching on screens, obstructing Winfield's guards.

"He's our MVP," Braden said. "He does a lot of things for us the paper doesn't see, but he just does so much for us and he helps us win ball games."

"He's our anchor," Olson said. "You can see him. He switches on a 5-foot-2 guy to a 6-foot-7 guy. Whoever it is, he's just guarding and that's big time."

Braden Chapman's 3 at the 2:29 mark of the third made it a 44-27 game and the Generals were never able to threaten again.

The Tigers finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field, nailing 10 3-pointers and scoring 26 points in the paint.

"That was the difficulty coming in," Winfield head coach Chris Stephens said. "The difficulty with a day to prepare is you know they're a 3-point shooting team. But all three of their guards can drive the ball so you cant over-help. You can't run out and run them off the line like you could some teams.

"Overall, they're a tough team. They did this to a lot of teams throughout the season."

Shady will play the winner of Friday night's game between Hampshire and Wheeling Central at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday for the Class AAA crown.

Email: tjackson@register-herald.com and follow on Twitter @TjackRH

Winfield (14-7)

Joey Gress 3, Carson Grouch 2, Ethan Kincaid 14, Blake Morris 6, Seth Shilot 11, Cody Griffith 3, Jayce Miller 6, Wyatt Kinder 6

Shady Spring (14-2)

Braden Chapman 22, Cole Chapman 10, Jaedan Holstein 7, Todd Duncan 4, Cameron Manns 16, Ammar Maxwell 4, Gavin Davis 1, Lattreal Hairston 4

W: 12 8 9 22 — 51

SS: 17 16 14 21 — 68

3-point goals — W: 7 (Kincaid 2, Griffith 1, Miller 2, Kindler 2); SS: 10 (B. Chapman 3, C. Chapman 1, Duncan 1, Manns 4, Maxwell 1). Fouled Out — W: Kincaid.