Wyoming East 67 Bluefield 61

[wvpymbr 11]

Good game Bluefield just young going to be good later on. Just wished Williams and Steptoe could have played. Could have made run at State for sure. #24 for East is a shooter for sure

[Beavers Rule 23]

I agree, Bluefield is young and will be better later on. I just don't understand why with over 30 seconds left and a two possession game, you just give up and don't continue to foul. You have two timeouts left and a two possession game with the shooters Bluefield had on the floor, I just think you have to play until the final buzzer. I know I'm not a coach and I should'nt be second guessing our staff but I just can help but wonder why they just gave up.

[wvpymbr 11]

I'm no coach either but I have been questioning our coaches all year. They just quit dont understand

[dlaw 11]

I agree that bluefield should have kept fouling. If WE misses a free throw and you hit a 3, then it's a 3 point game. Doesn't make sense to just give up. Also didn't make sense to stand there on defense and let WE run over a minute off the clock when you only had 2 team fouls. Thus, when they finally figured it out, they had to foul 5 times before putting WE on the line. Definitely some questionable coaching for the beavers down the stretch of that game.

[bhs7695 185]

Bluefield teams have done a bunch of suspect things on the basketball floor since Danny Gaither resigned and Tony Webster was screwed over later by the MCBOE from getting the head coaching job. Tony probably would have won a state title by now for Bluefield basketball.

[hokie07 11]

Tony probably would have won a state title by now for Bluefield basketball.

 

I am counting several 2-3 very, very good shots at titles MINIMUM.

 

2003-2004: Maybe the most talented team from top to bottom since the 95-96, 96-97 teams. They beat Woodrow in Bluefield and then put up a good fight in Beckley too, losing by 12-15 if I am not mistaken. Woodrow was the unanimous #1 and won the AAA title easily. Bluefield was one of the top 2-3 teams in the state no matter the class ranking realistically and didn't even play for the AA title.

 

2004-2005: Again, one of the better teams in the state. Jonathan Repass transferred from Princeton and Dexter Moore really began to make a name for himself. Very athletic team. Didn't play for a title either.

 

2005-2006: Played for the title. Lost a close one. I attribute that loss solely to Gilliard. Why you sit back in a zone all game against a team full of shooters and refuse to press is beyond me.

 

2006-2007: Terrible. A year-long top 2 team in the state, a senior-led team headed by Dexter Moore, lost in the first round of the tournament. No press. Zone defense. I don't think Bluefield scored 50 points in that game.

 

2007-2008: I know this was Haven's first season, and he lost in the AA finals, but he still didn't take complete advantage of all the skill sets on that team (i.e. the Ponder brothers) and lacked the continuity that Webster and/or Ellison had with the players up to that point.

 

I always found it interesting that Webster and Ellison's JV teams would go undefeated and win by big, big margins against their competition without many of the best eligible underclassmen who were playing varsity ball (i.e. the Ponders, Dexter Moore, Kyle Hammond, etc.), but the varsity always managed to lose 5-6 games a year. They also rarely lost and continued to win by big margins with their AAU teams too (which didn't have Moore, Ponder, Hammond, etc. because they played in bigger leagues) against Wyoming East, Westside, Magnolia, etc. throughout the state.

Edited February 23, 2011 by hokie07