Girls State basketball Tournament: Greenbrier East shoots past Keyser

The Lady Spartans calm the Golden Tornado, 52-37, to advance to the AAA State Championship Game

Undefeated through 24 games, the Greenbrier East girls basketball team has been no stranger to having the bullseye on its back.

Friday afternoon in the semifinals of the AAA Girls State Basketball Tournament, Keyser stepped into the spotlight with upset on its mind.

However, the Golden Tornado walked off the court just like each of the previous teams.

Never trailing in the contest, the Lady Spartans gradually pulled away for a 52-37 win.

The victory sends Greenbrier East to the Class AAA state championship game Saturday at 5 p.m. inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.

Greenbrier East head coach and current U.S. Senator from West Virginia, Jim Justice, along with players Mackenna McClure, Kennedy Stewart and Ava Workman talked with the media after the win.

Workman opened the scoring for the Lady Spartans with a 3-pointer, which was answered by a Riley Felton floater on the other end.

The next five minutes, however, was controlled by Greenbrier East.

Long balls from Kala Waller and five points from Stewart anchored a 9-0 run, pushing the advantage out to 12-2.

The lead was seven for East after the first quarter and hovered around that mark most of the second period.

That changed when Stewart drilled a three-quarter court shot to beat the buzzer, giving the Lady Spartans a 29-18 lead at halftime.

The deficit never fell back inside single digits the remainder of the game.

Buckets from Waller and Hannah Fuller quickly advanced the lead to 15 points, where it stood when the horn sounded to end the third period.

A pair of scores in the lane to start the final quarter from Stewart took the air of the comeback sails for the Golden Tornado who trailed by as many as 21 in the quarter.

Stewart led the way for East with 20 points, followed by Workman with 15 points.

McClure added six points and collected a game high 12 rebounds. Fuller pulled down 11 rebounds.

Felton scored 11 for Keyser and had eight rebounds. Kiya Kesner also had 11 points and five rebounds.

Golden Tornadoes head coach Josh Blowe talked about the game against the Lady Spartans.