East Hardy Pulls Away From Cameron Late
Bill Ferguson Photography CHARLESTON - The Cameron Dragons could not overcome an East Hardy team that was shooting the lights out on offense and pestering them heavily on defense.
The No. 3 Cougars secured their first state tournament win in school history at the expense of the Dragons on Wednesday morning, winning their Class A quarterfinals contest 60-50.
Jordan Teets led East Hardy in scoring with 26 points, but the biggest number of the game was 27.
Cameron committed 27 turnovers against the Cougars, who scored 30 points- half of their total- off of them.
Creating a large number of turnovers while shooting 9-21 from the 3-point line, East Hardy followed their recipe for success that they'd had all season.
"There's a rule in the gym that if you're open, you have to shoot it," Cougars head coach Chris Hahn said. "We've always been a smaller school and we're a bunch of 5-foot-7, 5-8 guards. Some years, those guards are really fast and some years they're not. You have to be able to be an offensive threat or otherwise we're at a real disadvantage- these guys have embraced that."
The Dragons were led by Lance Hartley who scored 11 points. Colson Wichterman scored nine points with five rebounds and five assists, while Colton Winters and Mason Scott each scored eight.
East Hardy led 14-12 after the first quarter and 26-24 at halftime.
The Cougars made five 3-pointers in the first half at a 33% rate, while Cameron shot 50% from the field and had a 12-2 advantage in points in the paint over the first two quarters.
East was able to maintain their lead with 17 points off 18 Dragons turnovers.
"We did cut it down, but that first half, they scored 17 points off turnovers," Cameron head coach Tom Hart said. "That did play a huge role."
East Hardy built their edge to lead 41-34 going into the fourth quarter, but Cameron stormed back to come within three.
The 3-point shot came through for the Cougars though, Nate Smith hitting a big shot from the top of the key to put East ahead 49-43 with four minutes remaining.
Smith made a play on defense next, snagging one of the Cougars' 19 steals, and found Jordan Teets for a long ball of his own to put East Hardy up 52-43.
"Those were two key baskets right there," Hart said.
Cuyler McCauley made a 3-pointer for the Dragons on their next trip, but with time playing against the Dragons, they sent East Hardy to the foul line, hoping for misses that did not come as frequently as needed. The Cougars went 8-12 over the final 1:44 to stave off any comeback attempt.
Cameron finished with a 28-17 rebound advantage, but the turnover discrepancy- 16-27- proved too much.
"One thing we got better at as the season went on was rebounding on both ends of the floor," Hart said.
East Hardy will play the winner of Tug Valley-Doddridge County in the state semifinals.
Cameron graduates a talented senior class of Lance Hartley, Colson Wichterman, Colton Winters and Carter Bertram and finish the year 20-6.
"I do think that these guys have helped set a bar with what expectations are. Not just a winning season, but winning an OVAC championship, winning a sectional, regional championship and gettin back to Charleston. That's the new norm for Cameron basketball.