Class AA No. 7 Chapmanville hit 12 3-pointers to defeat Class A No. 4 Huntington St. Joe’s 73-52 Friday night at Danny Godby Gymnasium.
Zion Blevins, Brody Dalton and Isaiah Smith combined to knock down 10 of the Tigers 12 3-pointers.
Blevins and Smith each hit four 3-pointers and Dalton added two triples as the trio combined to connect on 24-of-41 shot attempts from the field and combined to knock down 10-of-18 attempts from 3-point range.
“We have been shooting it really well in practice the last three or four days,” Chapmanville coach Brad Napier said. “I felt like it was a matter of time before we started making them in a game.”
Dalton led Chapmanville with 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting. Blevins was a perfect 4-for-4 from 3 and connected on 8-of-11 field goal attempts for 20 points and Smith was 7-of-14 from the field to finish with 18 points.
“I felt like going we would have a good game and we probably had our best two practices of the year the last two days,” Napier said. “We have had six or seven guys out with COVID, we had dealt with injuries, but we are getting back to full strength and had everybody here.”
Huntington St. Joe’s, who was coming off a 65-62 win over Class AAAA No. 8 Huntington Tuesday night, fell behind 7-0 but rallied to score the next nine points to take a 9-7 lead on Caden Ehirim’s 3 with 2:56 to play in the first quarter.
It would be the only lead of the contest as Chapmanville went on a 14-0 run to end the first quarter with a 21-9 lead.
Things only got worse for the Irish, who shot just 5-of-20 from the field in the first half and trailed 37-22 at halftime.
“We probably needed a game like this, and I think we came in with just a little bit too much arrogance tonight,” St. Joe’s coach Todd Maynard said. “We just beat Huntington, who is a four-A team and powerhouse, but Chapmanville put it to us.”
Chapmanville led by as many as 26 points in the second half as St. Joe’s struggled to shoot from the field. The Fighting Irish connected on 13-of-44 attempts from the field in contrast to the Tigers 30-of-59 performance from the field.
Zavian Johnson led the Fighting Irish with 29 points while Ehirim added 14 points. Jesse Muncy, St. Joe’s leading scorer at 22 points per game, was held to just three points on 1-of-10 shooting before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
“He (Muncy) never got in the flow of the game, he got in foul trouble quick which kind of deterred his thing of play,” Maynard said. “He done a lot of stuff that he doesn’t normally do like going and flying through the lane, jumping through there instead of coming to a dynamic jump stop and being in control.”
Using a man-to-man defense Chapmanville was able to frustrate Muncy by staying in front of him not giving him open space to shoot and not give driving lanes to the baskets. Two of Muncy’s five fouls were of the offensive variety as the Tigers were able to step in front and draw two charges.
“Our guards set the tone tonight,” Napier said. “Isaiah Smith guarded him most of the game and did a great job of pressuring him, making him go where he wasn’t comfortable, speeding him up and that enabled us to take those charges.”
Point guard Devin Workman controlled the offense leading the Tigers with eight assists to go along with five points and five rebounds.
“Devin was everywhere tonight and that was probably the best game that Devin has played at Chapmanville,” Napier said. “He had eight assists, hit shots early but he didn’t shoot enough and the shots that he took he hit the majority of them.”
Chapmanville held a 32-24 advantage on the boards with Dalton leading the way with 12 rebounds to go along with his 21 points.
Chapmanville was whistled for 18 fouls resulting in 21 foul shots for St. Joe’s.
“I like for our guys to be aggressive, and I don’t feel that we foul enough, and I have told them that all year,” Napier said. “When we foul, we are being aggressive, and we got a lot of over the back calls tonight and I loved every one of them because that means my guys are being aggressive.”
Huntington St. Joe’s feel to 10-5 with the defeat and was scheduled to face Paintsville (Kentucky) in the Hatfield-McCoy Shootout at the Williamson Memorial Fieldhouse on Saturday.
Chapmanville improves to 9-7 and will return to action Feb. 11 at home against Class AAA No. 1 Logan, who suffered its first loss of the season, 66-44, Friday night at Poca.
“They are number one for a reason, they are talented, and they don’t have a lot of weaknesses,” Napier said. “They shoot the ball well, they pass well and have two big kids inside that do a good job or rebounding and scoring.”
Chapmanville 73, Huntington St. Joe’s 52
Huntington St. Joe’s Fighting Irish (10-5)
Zavian Johnson 6-15 12-14 29, Caden Ehirim 4-10 4-7 14, Jax Fortner 2-5 0-0 6, Jesse Muncy 1-10 0-0 3, Phillip Ignatiadis 0-2 0-0 0, Jaden Price 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 13-44 16-21 52.
Chapmanville Tigers (9-7)
Brody Dalton 9-16 1-1 21, Zion Blevins 8-11 0-0 20, Isaiah Smith 7-14 0-0 18, Devin Workman 2-3 0-1 5, Sam Leslie 2-4 0-0 4, Drew Berry 1-6 0-0 3, Colton Craddock 1-3 0-0 2, Isaac Butcher 0-2 0-0 0.
Totals: 30-59 1-2 73.
Huntington St. Joe’s 9 13 11 19- 52
Chapmanville 21 16 17 19- 73
3-point field goals- SJ 10-27 (Johnson 5-12, Ehirim 2-4, Fortner 2-5, Muncy 1-5, Price 0-1), CRHS 12-27 (Dalton 2-3, Blevins 4-4, Smith 4-11, Workman 1-2, Leslie 0-1, Berry 1-6). Rebounds- SJ 24 (Ehirim 7), CRHS 32 (Dalton 12). Assists- SJ 6 (Johnson 3, Price 3), CRHS 23 (Workman 12). Total fouls- SJ 11, CRHS 18. Fouled out- Muncy, Workman.