SHORT GAP, W.Va. — Leading 35-34 at halftime, Keyser came out of the locker room and took complete control in the third quarter.
The Golden Tornado (2-3) scored 14 unanswered to open the second half.
That run proved to be the difference in Keyser’s 65-54 win at Frankfort on Friday to spoil the Falcons’ season-opening game.
“We talked about it at length in the locker room,” Keyser head coach Scott Furey said. “We understood it’s their first game, so they’re getting some things ironed out. This is our fifth game, so they’re gonna get a whole lot better. But, that kinda played a really big role and come out and establish some of the things we did against Southern.”
Three players combined for 11 of the points as Grayson Lambka and Kameron Samples scored four points each while Braylon McGreevy added three.
McGreevy finished as the game’s leading scorer with 19 points, adding three blocks.
“He’s been playing great every game for us,” Furey said. “He’s really coming into his own, he’s finding his mid-range jumper. He’s feeling good about that and he’s playing really hard. He rebounds hard, he defends hard.”
Samples scored 14 points with three assists and a block while Lambka added 10 points, six assists and three steals.
Jeremy Phillips broke the scoring drought on a floater with 3:44 left in the quarter for the Falcons (0-1), who now trailed 49-36.
Phillips led Frankfort with 15 points, adding two assists.
The Falcons outscored Keyser 8-6 to end the quarter, but trailed 55-44.
“It felt like the same thing against Southern on Tuesday,” Frankfort head coach Scott Slider said. “That made all the difference. They came out, they were on fire. They were gonna come after us, play hard from the get-go. They turned it up in the second half as soon as they stepped on the court. Which is exactly what I fully expected, I’m not sure our kids responded like we expected them too.”
The Tornado led by as many as 13 in the final quarter, leading 61-48 with 3:45 to play.
Bryson McKenzie cut the deficit to seven on a 3-pointer with 2:16 left, but that was the closest Frankfort got to a comeback.
While Keyser took control in the third quarter, it was anyone’s game for the first 12 minutes.
In the first half, neither team led by more than four, as the game remained a one-score game after the Tornado led 9-5.
“Anytime these two teams go at it, it’s a slugfest,” Furey said. “Nobody wants to get down by any more and you got pride on the line all over the place. I think it was more about our guys making sure we stayed in striking distance. We really pride ourselves on making sure hopefully conditioning becomes a factor in the second half.”
The first quarter featured seven lead changes while the second quarter saw 12.
In the second quarter, Frankfort took a 19-18 lead with 6:46 to play in the half on a 3-pointer from Kycin Waites off a Darius Gray assist.
Over the next four minutes, there were six lead changes.
“I figured we would come out sluggish, hopefully we could come out on fire, but we weren’t,” Slider said. “They hit a couple shots to start, it was evened out. But we could’ve been so much hotter than we were. I think that plays into the fact we’re two weeks starting and they got all those games under their belt.”
A pair of free throws from Gray put the Falcons ahead 27-26, but the lead changes continued.
Over the final 60 seconds, the lead changed five times.
On the final possession of the half, Camden Owens knocked down a 3-pointer off an assist from Lambka that put the Tornado ahead 35-34 at halftime.
“For us, it’s just not playing, not being on the court playing an opposing team,” Slider said. “We weren’t executing like we should have through some of those early minutes. Even defensively, we were definitely not as aggressive as we needed to be. Even later in the game, we needed to be more aggressive than we were.”
Jake Layton scored 11 points with a pair of triples and a steal for the Falcons while Uriah Cutter added six points, five steals and two blocks.
Frankfort won the junior varsity game 55-43 led by Braeden Laffey’s 19 points and Waites and Ethan Talley with 12 points each.
Monk Garland led Keyser with 14 while Eli Burke added 12.
Frankfort heads to Mountain Ridge (0-3) on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
The Falcons started its season later than anyone in the area after the football team’s run to a state title prevented several players from joining basketball.
“I’m a firm believer in success breeds success,” Slider said. “Every year, we have football teams that play in the playoffs. So I’m used to our kids coming to us late. There’s only been a few times in my 17 years of coaching they’ve been there day one.”
The Golden Tornado get a couple weeks off before hosting Preston (2-1) on Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m.