PAW PAW, W.Va. — There are fast starts, and there is what East Hardy did at Paw Paw on Thursday night.
The Cougars, newly christened as the No. 1 team in the West Virginia Class A poll, were white hot at the onset, burying seven 3-pointers in the first quarter to lead 32-10 after just eight minutes.
East Hardy cooled off over the final three periods, but 6-foot-6 freshman Gideon Good was a dominant force on the glass and Paw Paw never recovered to fall 86-49 on Thursday night at Josh Delawder Court.
The defeat was Paw Paw’s first of the season in six games. The Cougars improved to 4-0.
“Tonight, we didn’t execute the way we have the rest of the season, so that was a little frustrating,” East Hardy head coach Chris Hahn said. “I didn’t think we shot the ball very well tonight. Made it a little harder than it needed to be.
“We separated there, but we really never played clean basketball. It was good to come in here and get the win. Clearly Paw Paw had some pretty high expectations on this one, and they played hard.”
East Hardy, ranked No. 2 in the area poll, surprised many across the state by upsetting defending Class A runner-up Tucker County, 59-55, on the road on Dec. 12.
Tucker defeated East Hardy, 77-51, in the state tournament last year — the first time the Cougars have advanced to Charleston since 1996.
East Hardy showed why it’s so dangerous in the opening period against Paw Paw.
After some back-and-forth play early, East Hardy ended the first quarter on a 23-6 run — capped by three straight 3-pointers. Jordan Teets accounted for three of the Cougars’ seven triples in the period, and Nate Smith and Evan Hamilton drilled two treys each.
“They can shoot the lights out,” Paw Paw head coach Taylor Carder said. “And props to them. They probably spend several hours in the gym and you can tell it.”
JW Teets, who made the All-Area first team as a junior last season after averaging 18.1 points and 3.8 assists per game, played the role of facilitator, driving and threading no-look passes into the corners against Paw Paw’s 1-3-1 zone.
East Hardy’s lead grew to 49-18 at the half and 71-28 after three. The Cougars pulled their starters for good with 4:54 to play leading 78-37.
“They have a good program, good talent and a good coaching staff,” Carder said. “We just got beat. We missed a lot of easy shoots, and you can’t do that, no matter what class of basketball team you’re facing.”
Five Cougars finished in double figures. Jordan Teets scored 19 points, burying five of the Cougars’ 11 3-pointers, Smith scored 13, Hamilton tallied 12 and JW Teets finished with 11.
Good notched 10 of his 17 points after halftime. Paw Paw had no answer for the athletic 190-pound forward due to its lack of size.
Both of Paw Paw’s senior forwards ended in double figures, with Greyson Corbett ending with a game-high 21 points on nine field goals. Conner Williams added 11.
Donovan Tanouye, the Pirates’ point guard, added 13 points. The athletic junior showed heart in the second half, diving for a myriad of loose balls despite the one-sided margin.
For a team as young as Paw Paw — a school with around 80 kids between grades 7-12 — Thursday was an early look at what areas the Pirates need to improve.
Paw Paw returns to the court on Dec. 26 to play Clear Spring in the Blazers’ Christmas tournament.
“Nothing against the other schools we’ve played, but small schools are up and down so much, and we hadn’t played anybody that really tested us yet,” Carder said. “They did, and now we know what to work on.”
East Hardy doesn’t play again until the new year when it hosts Union (1-1) on Jan. 3.
That contest will serve as a tune-up for the main event, as East Hardy has a home rematch with Tucker County two days later in a battle of Nos. 1 and 2 in the classification.
Tucker (2-2) bounced back from its early defeat to the Cougars, toppling Mountain Ridge, 60-50, on Dec. 15 in Frostburg.
“It’s not a spot we’re familiar with,” Hahn said of being No. 1. “We’re used to playing Tucker and not being successful. So to have that early success, the only place you can go from here is down.
“You have to bring the kids in and have them work hard every single day to know that now the target’s on your back. … Make no mistake, Tucker has all my respect. They are an absolutely loaded team.”