CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Wyoming East boys basketball coach Kent McBride never wants his team to play in fear of failure.
It’s an approach that has helped the Warriors reach the Class AA title game — the program’s first appearance in a state championship in 16 years.
No. 2 Wyoming East scored the final six points of Friday’s semifinal against No. 3 Bluefield, overcoming a late one-point deficit for its third triumph this season against the Beavers, 56-51 at the Charleston Coliseum.
“We don’t have any wavering. There’s such positive communication,” McBride said. “We’ve failed in those moments at times. We know what failure looks like. We told them during one of the last timeouts, ‘don’t you dare be afraid to fail.’ We call something and they play like that, so I’m cool with it.”
The Warriors (22-2) trailed 51-50 after the Beavers’ Greyson Parris accounted for separate paint baskets in a 34-second stretch, the latter of which led to McBride calling timeout and delivering the aforementioned message.
Out of the break, Warriors’ guard Keegan Davidson scored on a short jumper, and after Konnor Fox drew a charging foul against Perris, Davidson followed suit again, this time from even closer off a drive.
“They pressure the ball a lot and my teammates do a good job when we get to the ball to the second side,” Davidson said. “They’re such good shooters so they can’t help as much. They can’t help like most teams so I’m able to get down there.”
That left WEHS with a 54-51 lead, and the Beavers got their top offensive option a look for a tying three-pointer, but Jase Smith’s attempt missed the mark.
After fouling three times, the Beavers sent Broc Johnson to the free-throw line and he sealed the verdict by making both foul shots with 7 seconds left.
“We delivered some blows and took some blows, but we delivered the last one,” McBride said. “It’s what you expect when you come down here.”
For as strong as Wyoming East’s closure to the contest was, the Warriors also dominated at the start, running off 14 unanswered points after trailing 3-0.
Davidson scored six points in the opening frame and reserves Braedy Johnston and Jessie Wyatt each made a three, though Ricky Dunford helped BHS settle in with two triples that cut its deficit to 18-13 after one quarter.
“We know how good their guards are. We tried to throw different things at them,” Bluefield coach Tony Webster said. “When you come here, your guard play has to be strong. If your guard play isn’t strong, you’re going to struggle.”
Jase Smith accounted for six of Bluefield’s 11 points in the second quarter, and the Beavers utilized a 1-3-1 zone defense to help slow East, which shot 3 for 11 in that frame and went to halftime with a 26-24 lead.
The Beavers outscored WEHS 9-0 over a 3-minute stretch in the second, before Broc Johnson’s trey allowed McBride’s team to lead at halftime.
“They play so hard and they’re so athletic in it,” McBride said. “You think you see all these seams. We didn’t get a good job of getting into certain seams on it. Where we wanted to attack it, they took it away.”
MetroNews broadcast interview with Wyoming East’s Kent McBride on their 56-51 win over Bluefield in the Class AA semifinals: #wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/zJtTLnkIWZ
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The Warriors upped their advantage to 10 at the 4:30 mark of the third quarter on Johnson’s layup, but BHS continued to battle back and got five straight points from Davion Hickman to cut its deficit in half.
Smith scored the final four points of the third on separate buckets, including one just before time expired that cut the East lead to 41-38.
“It’s going to be ups and downs. Our coach preaches to us about mental toughness and how we’re going to react when games don’t go our way,” Smith said. “It’s been like that all year. We’re never going to give up.”
East quickly gained a nine-point fourth-quarter lead after Johnston and Talan Muscari connected from long range in succession, but the Beavers scored 11 of the next 12 points, six of which Parris accounted for.
Down the stretch, Davidson, who led all players with 22 points, made a major difference.
“That was a heavyweight battle between two good teams with a small margin for error that have a lot of familiarity with each other,” McBride said. “Tony Webster does a remarkable job figuring out what they’re good at in January and hammering it home.”
Johnson scored 13 and Muscari 12 on four triples.
Braxton Morgan had a game-high 11 rebounds in the win and Fox snatched eight, with the duo combining for 12 of their team’s 21 offensive boards. WEHS won the resounding battle, 38-28, and had 13 of the 19 second-chance points between the teams.
“Rebounding and second-chance shots were the difference in the game,” Webster said.
Smith scored 20 on 8-for-24 shooting in defeat. Hickman added 12 and was 5 for 8 from the field.
The Warriors face the winner of Wheeling Central-Wayne in Saturday’s title game.
“This is the expectation,” McBride said. “We did not shy away from it.”