Keyser Opens Tonight At Southern Garrett

The Keyser High School basketball team will return to action tonight when it travels to Southern Garrett to kick off the 2008-09 Season.
Head Coach Gary Liston will return all five starters from a 12-10 team that made the trip to Charleston last year to participate in the state playoffs. The Golden Tornado got it together late during Liston's initial season at the helm, wining the sectional and regional tourneys before dropping a first rounder to Ravenswood.
"It was a good year," said Liston, "It was not great, not terrible. We made a few lineup changes at the end."
One of those lineup changes was the insertion of freshman Wes Washington at the point guard position.
Washington will return to lead the team again this year, with Matt Wilmer and Jeremy Green joining him in the backcourt.
Keyser's lone post threat, Preston Hartman, ironically is Keyser's most effective perimeter option as well. Hartman is the team's best interior player, but will often attempt to "Pittsnogle" opposing offenses by stepping out and showing off his range.
Harman and company will once again operate out of the "run and gun", or as Liston refers to it, the "fun and gun."
The offense can be traced back to the late 1980's when Paul Westhead introduced the nation to his "shoot it every 18 seconds" and his to hell with defense philosophy at Loyola Marymount.
"It is chaos, but controlled chaos," said Liston.
"We try to use our athletes where we can succeed. We don't have many 'basketball players' but we do have athletes."
In reality, Keyser has no significant size or inside threat, and will dress five guards at all times labeled as "post" or "wing" in Liston's scheme.
Keyser will have to play some sort of defense when it does not have the ball and running with it.
"We will primarily play man and mix in some 1-3-1 and 2-3 looks. Sometimes we will use some junk defenses when we have to. Like coach (Larry) Harr says we'll do whatever it takes."
Keyser took it easy on the defensive end last season, but Liston hinted he might be apt to turn up the pressure and hope it translates into tempo in 2009.
Hartman was named third-team AA All-State as a junior, and returns as the core of Keyser's big-three, one football fans might be familair with.
"Everyone knows we have three guys in Wilmer, Hartman, and Green who are great athletes. Washington started nearly every game after he was made a starter last season and he will only get better," said Liston.
Keyser's fifith starter, Taige Redman, will be looked to provide role play and defensive hustle along with his linebacker mentality along with a newcomer to the squad - Joe Amtower.
Keyser will dress 10-11 players on the varsity and rotate 3 others on the jayvee squad.
Rounding out the varsity roster will be Wes Stalanberger, Tony Amtower, and Dan Zinn who all played junior varsity last season, and junior Jarell Ross.
Payton Hartman and R.C. Pratt are expected to split time at the varsity and jayvee levels.
Also back this year will be Maverick Nelson, who missed the campaign last season due to injury.
Joining Liston on the sidelines will be jayvee coach Scott Furey, Harr, josh Blowe, and John Haines.
Haines is also the frosh head man.
Keyser will travel to Mountain Ridge on Monday before its' home opener against intra-county rival Frankfort on Tuesday. KHS wins opener
The Keyser High School boys won their season opener 59-53 at Southern last night.
Keyser had three players with double-doubles as Jeremy Green tossed in 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Preston Hartman added 13 and 11, and Maverick Nelson 13 and 10.
Sophomore guard Wes Washington added 10 points and seven assists.
Keyser went 8-for-22 from the line and Southern was able to keep it close.
In typical Southern style, the Rams tried to slow it down on the Golden Tornado, and Keyser tried to rev it up at all times.
Green was the differnece, scoring seven points in a late surge to seal it for Keyser as the Golden Tornado held off a late rally by the Rams.
Keyser won the jayvee matchup as well, 45-42, but needed an extra period to do it.
R.C. Pratt led the Tornado underclassmen, scoring 19 points an grabbing 10 boards for his own double-double.
Kurt Amtower tallied 10 points and added seven boards.
Keyser (1-0) will host intra-county rival Frankfort Tuesday at Tornado Alley.