Spring Mills survives Jefferson 48-47 to stay unbeaten

— By Daniel Woods

The Spring Mills boys basketball team is well aware it will be tested in trying to achieve ultimate goal of being crowned Class AAAA state champion.

On Thursday, Eastern Panhandle Athletic Conference rival Jefferson provided a test and then some, but the Cardinals escaped with a 48-47 win in Shenandoah Junction.

“We just played one of the best teams in the state and beat them at their place,” Spring Mills head coach Luke Samples said, “It’s EPAC basketball. We don’t expect to just come in here and blow everyone out. Credit Jefferson High School. They came out with a good game plan and executed it. We executed ours a little bit better and came out with a one-point win.”

A recent addition to the Spring Mills starting lineup sparked the Cardinals early as sophomore Tyler Jones delivered the first of his five three-pointers to start the scoring.

Jones spent the majority of the season in the role of sixth man, but strong defensive effort earned him a spot with the starters and he rewarded his coach with a game-high 19 points.

“He lives for these moments. When a kid’s playing well off the bench, and again, it’s for defense more than anything, you give him a chance, and he’s been running with it and he’s done a really good job,” Samples said.

While Jones got the ball rolling, Jefferson that seized the momentum in the first quarter, scoring the final seven points of the frame, including five straight from sophomore Takiem Drake.

Spring Mills started the second quarter with a counter in mind and the Cardinals certainly staggered the Cougars with it. A 15-0 run to start the second stanza put the Cardinals in control and was punctuated by Spring Mills’ Caleb Thomas’ swatting away a Jefferson three-point attempt, before sprinting up the floor to receive a pass from Max Anderson and punishing the rim with a two-handed slam dunk.

By outscoring Jefferson 21-5 in the second, Spring Mills led 31-22 at the half, but the Cougars team were to rally.

JHS scored the first six points of the third quarter as Jaiden Gladney finished a reverse layup to trim the deficit to a single possession.

Spring Mills answered by stretching the lead back to as much as nine, but again Jefferson pulled it back with Jamari Jenkins finding Kylan Johnson for an open corner three that made it a 36-32 margin at the end of the third.

After being held scoreless in the third quarter, Jones reemerged to open the fourth with his fifth triple of the night, before Ty Vickers answered with one of his own for Jefferson.

Full-court pressure from the Cougars proved to cause issues for Spring Mills as a handful of timely turnovers helped Jefferson draw back within one possession with under a minute to play.

Drake, a sophomore, stepped up again to make it a one-point deficit as he followed his own shot and fired up a second chance from under the rim, only to be fouled by Thomas. He was able to convert both free throws that made it a 46-45 game as Spring Mills attempted to dribble out the clock, running the remaining time down to 12.8 seconds before Akwasi Opoku-Achampong was fouled.

With Spring Mills in the bonus, the sophomore point guard stepped to the line, but not before receiving some words from his head coach.

“I called him over and I told him ‘Morgantown.’ He did the same thing against Morgantown. We were up one, he made two and he did the same thing tonight. He doesn’t blink,” Samples said.

Those free throws forced Jefferson to attempt a three-pointer to force overtime, but a good look for Gladney did not fall and Drake could only tip the miss in.

The Cardinals move to 19-0 on the regular season on a night their starting five played the entirety of the second half.

“They’re built different. We work all year round for this. We don’t suffer fatigue. Forget that,” Samples said, “We’re going to play the guys that should be on the floor and they have to rally and they have to make sure throughout the offseason that they do their jobs so they can play 32 minutes in a game.”

Thomas added 12 points for Spring Mills.

Jefferson was led by Drake’s 13 points and Jenkins scored 10 after re-entering the lineup following an injury against Martinsburg on January 26.