South Charleston coach Josh Daniel has seen his team improve by leaps and bounds from the beginning of the season until now. On Tuesday, the Black Eagles kept that trend going — during the course of the game, no less.
Nas’Jaih Jones and Bryson Smith combined for 16 of their team’s 22 fourth-quarter points, leading SC to a spirited 56-51 victory over previously unbeaten George Washington before a vocal crowd at the SC Community Center.
South Charleston made seven of eight shots from the floor and all seven of its free throws in the final period as it surged back from a seven-point deficit near the end of the third quarter against the No. 2 team in Class AAAA.
Jones tallied 14 of his 16 points in the second half, including nine in the final period, and Smith scored 13 of his 18 following the halftime break, with seven points coming in the fourth quarter. Both took the ball to the hole with vigor, and a Jones driving basket with 35 seconds left broke the final tie of 50-all.
SC (8-3) then made all four of its free throws in the last 25 seconds, two by Jones and two by Christian Goebel, who wasn’t even fouled on the play. Goebel subbed in when Roman Kellum was fouled going for a rebound with six seconds remaining and landed hard on his back with SC ahead 54-51.
Goebel stepped to the line and coolly knocked down a pair of free throws to make it a two-possession game and end the suspense. GW had won four games by four or fewer points against the Black Eagles in the three previous seasons and owned a 65-51 victory against South Charleston earlier this season.
“We’re continuing to get better,” Daniel said. “Where this team is today from where we were a month ago is night and day.
“This is a huge step for us as far as confidence goes, with GW coming in here 12-0. I thought we played really well against them the first time we played them. But to finish this game after we got behind and play the full 32 minutes shows a lot about this team. These kids work hard and are trying to do the right thing, and they’re getting rewarded.”
Neither side shot the ball well in the first half as GW led 22-19 at the intermission. SC shot 36.8% and GW 35.7%. But the Black Eagles improved to a 4-of-7 effort on 3-pointers in the second half after going 0 of 7 in the first half.
Kellum added 11 points and seven rebounds for SC. Smith also grabbed seven missed shots.
“We didn’t score a whole lot in the first half,” Daniel said, “but I thought our defense kept us in the game. Finally, both offenses came to life in the second half, and I have so much respect for coach [Rick] Greene and GW and what they do.
“Our two best players are Smith and Jones, and everybody knows it, and they stepped up when it counted the most.”
George Washington (12-1), meanwhile, was 3 of 19 on 3-pointers and saw a 48-44 lead with 2:30 remaining get wiped out.
“South Charleston made plays when it needed to make plays,” Greene said. “They hit buckets and we didn’t. I thought we got some really good looks and the shots didn’t go down.
“Smith and Jones made a couple plays, and Josh does a great job with them. You can’t afford to not do your best defense and not hit your shots. That’s the nature of the beast. Credit to them. I think they played very well.”
For GW, Brendan Hoffman poured in a game-high 28 points — including some highly contested shots from the lane and the perimeter — and snagged seven rebounds. Noah Lewis chipped in eight points and seven boards as the Patriots led 28-24 in rebounding.
The two teams could well meet again before season’s end. They currently stand one-two in the Mountain State Athletic Conference (GW is 6-0 in league games, SC 6-1), and are on track to meet in the league’s Night of Champions title game. Tuesday’s game was a non-conference contest. SC and GW are also in the same section (Region 3 Section 1).
“We knew we had the pieces to be a good basketball team,” Daniel said. “It’s just, when are we going to start to jell and put it all together? I think you see in spurts — when we do — how good we can be.
“But it’s a long year. We can’t get too high and we can’t get too low. Stay even-keel.”
