Keyser Stymies Northern, 58-33

KEYSER — The Keyser Golden Tornado held the Northern Huskies without a field goal for over ten minutes in the first half and used a pair of second-half runs to build a comfortable lead en route to a 58-33 win at Tornado Alley Wednesday night.
Jeremy Green paced the Keyser effort with 14 points and ten rebounds, with Maverick Nelson close behind with 13 points. Matt Wilmer had seven points, six assists and four steals.
Thomas Holtschneider led Northern with eight points.
Both teams came out cold; Green picked up the game's first basket on a fade-away baseline jumper with 5:49 left in the first quarter, then back-to-back Northern layups gave the Huskies a small lead before Green hit a pair at the foul line with 3:42 left to tie the game at four.
Matt Gibson re-established the Husky lead with a pair of foul shots with 2:58 left in the first quarter, but the Golden Tornado finished the quarter on a 6-0 run.
After a Wes Washington free throw with 2:54 left, Maverick Nelson hit a three from the left wing to give Keyser a 8-6 lead at the 2:15 mark, then a Preston Hartman layup with under a minute to go off a nice baseline feed from Nelson pushed the cushion to four to end the quarter.
Washington picked a Husky pocket and went untouched for a layup ten seconds into the second quarter.
Jarell Ross hit a six-footer at the 7:24 mark, then Washington tallied another layup at 7:08. Keyser led, 16-6. Hartman continued the Tornado surge with a layup from the left block with five-and-a-half minutes left in the half. Northern finally ended a drought of over ten minutes from the field when Dylan Miller hit a jump shot from the foul line. A pair of Holtschneider free throws pulled the Huskies back within single digits, 18-10, with 1:49 left in the second quarter.
Hartman finished out the Keyser scoring for the first half with a second-chance bucket with 47 seconds left. To close out the half, Northern's Trevor Tombley hit the first of two free throws with 4.6 seconds left. Keyser led at the half, 20-11.
Hartman led all scorers with six first-half points; Washington was close behind with five.
The Huskies cut the lead to seven with fifteen seconds gone in the third quarter on a ten-foot jump shot from Ed Herpel, but Keyser re-established their nine-point cushion when Green found Nelson in transition for a layup.
After a Rayner stick-back for Northern, the Golden Tornado found the accelerator.
Buckets by Green, Wilmer, Hartman, and Wilmer again propelled the KHS lead to 30-15 with 4:23 left in the third quarter. A Holtschneider layup out of a Northern timeout halted the run, but Wes Stullenbarger picked up a layup in transition, then turned provider, losing a Husky defender with a pump-fake and slotting the ball to Jeremy Green for a six-foot jump shot.
Then it was Green to Nelson with 2:25 left in the third quarter to give Keyser their biggest lead of the night so far at 36-17.
The Huskies picked up their play, however, pouring in the next seven points to cut the lead to 36-24 with 1:15 left in the quarter, but that was as close as they could get. Nelson ended the run with a layup, then the teams traded foul shots the rest of the quarter. Keyser led 40-26 after three periods. After Northern pulled within 12 points on a pair of foul shots, the Golden Tornado went on a 7-0 run to put the game out of reach at 47-28 with 4:40 left. Green then scored six straight Keyser points to push the lead above 20.
Playing predominantly junior varsity players the final few minutes, the Golden Tornado led by as many at 26 and cruised to a 58-33 win.
The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday night but was pushed back a day due to inclement weather.
The Golden Tornado won the junior varsity game, 62-43, thanks to a 20-point outburst in the fourth quarter.
Northern (4-5) hosts Frankfort on Saturday.