By Dave Morrison
On a day marked for its outstanding senior class and its record-setting marks over the last few years, a pair of Shady Spring underclassmen played like grizzled veterans.
Junior Ammar Maxwell scored a career-high 35 points and sophomore Jack Williams, in his first pressure spot as a Tiger, made two free throws with 5.3 seconds left as Class AAA No. 1 Spring Shady knocked off Class AAAA No. 4 Huntington 77-74 Friday night.
For the five seniors – Braden Champman, Cole Chapman, Jaedan Holstein, Sam Jordan and Cam Manns – a group that has won a school record 79 games now and played in the last two Class AAA state championship games, winning it all in 2021 and is now 31-0 all-time at Dave Wills Gymnasium, they seniors contributed in some form or fashion.
Major among those contributions was Braden Chapman with 19 points, Cam Manns hitting a huge 3 and Jaedan Holstein with a couple important free throws.
Huntington, which had been hot from the field all game with 13 3s, cooled at the foul line going 1 for 7 over a late three-minute stretch of the fourth quarter and that’s when the Tigers made their move.
With Huntington up 66-65 at the 3:30 mark, Avonte Crawford missed two free throws and Cam Manns stuck a huge 3 on the other end to make to 68-66. Jaylen Motley then made 1 of 2 at the line and again after a key rebound Manns struck, with a drive to the basket and a layup to make it 70-67 with 2:35 remaining.
Manns went down with an injury later, but he did walk gingerly from the floor with the help of coach Ronnie Olson and assistant coach Russ Jordan.
Motley was fouled on the Huntington side and again he missed two and Cole Chapman scored on a huge lay in to make it 72-67. After Shady found the going a little tough at the line, Maxwell missed the front end of a 1-and-1 – which is about the only thing he missed Friday night – Mikey Johnson hot a basket and was fouled with a chance at a three-point play, but he missed the free throw with 25.9 remaining.
That’s when the trek to the line started. Holstein made two free throws before all-state quarterback Gavin Lochow made a 3 to make it 74-72.
Then Braden Chapman, who had 19, made 1 of 2 at the line to put the Tigers ahead by 3.
Johnson, who had 29 to lead the Highlanders, scored on a quick drive to the basket. Williams was then fouled with 5.3 remaining and he calmly sank both to give Shady the lead. A tie up ahead of the Highlanders 3-point line basically ended the game as Huntington could not get a shot off.
“A little nervous but nothing I’ve never felt before,” Williams said of his free throws. “That’s the stuff you live for. That’s why you play the game of basketball.”
There wasn’t much Huntington did wrong for three-plus quarters and the Highlanders played without leading scorer Wayne Harris who was on a football recruiting visit out of state.
In fact, Huntington owed the offensive glass for much of the first half with seven offensive rebounds and they had 13 in the game. Huntington led 22-18 after one and trailed by just three at the half. Mikey Johnson (29 points) and Motley combined for 10 3s in the game.
Aside from the win and an emotional senior night, Olson found little to make him smile inside the 32 minutes of action.
“We won, and that’s all I’ve got to say about it,” Olson said. “As far as the way we played, we didn’t play well but we played good enough to win.”
The end wasn’t what coach Ty Holmes, a former Mountain State University player (1996-97) wanted for his Highlanders.
“I was proud of our guys, the way they came and competed,” Holmes said. “This is not an easy place to play at, it’s a really good team and I thought our guys came and competed and played hard. We missed some foul shots at the end, but we competed, and I think that’s a good sign going into the postseason.”
Maxwell, quickly becoming a main contributor with his 11th straight double figure night, who scored on an array of moves around the basket and had 20 points at the half, said he just wanted to give the team a spark when he came off the bench for the first time this season allowing Sam Jordan to make a start on Senior Night.
“The team was down, somebody had to take responsibility and pick it up and I was that guy tonight,” Maxwell said. “I hit some shots. We started slow and I had to come in and get some energy going.”
“It took him a moment to get started, it was probably weird for him coming off the bench,” Olson said. “He stepped up big on the glass, he was driving between guys Euro stepping through them. Braden was Braden. Some of the other guys were sleep walking but the underclassmen stepped up. Ammar stepped up.”
It was Huntington’s domination of the glass and the fact they had open looks on most of the 13 3s they made bothered Olson.
“A lot of their shots weren’t contested,” Olson said. “High schoolers are going to make those shots. That’s on us. And the offensive rebounding is all about us thinking that we’ve been dominating on the glass and it’s going to come to you every night and it’s not. They outwilled us and outworked us on the glass tonight and I’m disappointed in that aspect of the game. I think we charted seven offensive rebounds in the first half. That’s a lot. We couldn’t guard, we couldn’t contest, we couldn’t rebound, that’s a recipe to lose right there.”
Shady survived and improved to 18-3 on the season. The Tigers also have won 33 straight at home (dating back to a Feb. 8, 2019, loss to Bluefield). The game was the 50th at Dave Wills Gymnasium where the Tigers are 47-3.
As for the pregame ceremony, Olson admitted it was emotional.
“All of them have put this program on the map,” Olson said. “It’s not me, it’s not coach (Shawn) Radford, it’s not coach Jordan, it’s been these young men. They are the ones that put it on the map and where it’s respected in the state. I teared up a lot. I’m an emotional guy anyway. I was going to talk to them, and I decided against it. I wanted to tell them, and they know this because I tell them about every day, how much they mean to me and how much I love them. I appreciate them fighting through everything I have for them. I’m tough on them and they still come to practice, and I ream them, and I do everything but throw the kitchen sink at them. And they are still here. Everything they get they have earned. I just want to tell them thank you and I love them to death.”
The Senior Class is now 79-9.
“It’s amazing just playing with guys like that,” Williams said of the five seniors. “They ‘ve been playing for four years, they’ve won a state championship, they’ve seen it all. They’ve been in every situation. It’s awesome playing with those guys.”
