Hinton – Following a disappointing loss to Chapmanville over the weekend, Summers County head coach Chad Meador wanted to see how his team would respond.
For the second time this season the Lady Bobcats rebounded nicely.
Summers forced 26 turnovers Wednesday night, beating Class AAA Nicholas County 60-38 at Summers County Middle School, formerly known as Hinton High School.
The game was held at the middle school with Hinton High Hall of Famers invited back to enjoy the game.
The host Lady Bobcats made them proud.
Leading 14-8 after a quarter, Summers scored the first 10 points of the second quarter and led by as many as 19 points in the frame.
Aiding the hosts was their penchant for turning the Grizzlies over. In the first half the Grizzlies gave the ball away 16 times.
“We knew coming in that we wanted to turn them over to generate some offense,” Meador said. “Last Saturday we didn’t have a field goal over the last 11 minutes of the game. We wanted to get a little confidence back and we thought the best way to do that is to turn it over and convert a little offense and get in some kind of rhythm. I felt like we did that tonight.”
A free throw followed by a steal and a three-point play from Summers freshman Avery Lilly accounted for the first four points of the second quarter, extending the lead to double digits. A pair of free throws from Maggie Stover and a pair of layups from Gracie Harvey and Sullivan Pivont staked the hosts to a 24-8 lead. A 3-pointer courtesy of Anastin Hornsby temporarily halted the run but six straight from the Lady Bobcats pushed the lead up to 19.
By the half the Bobcats were comfortably in control with a 17-point lead.
The closest the visitors came to making a run came in the third quarter when an offensive rebound and stick back from Kelsi Foster cut the deficit to 14 but an 8-2 run reestablished order.
Shooting just one 3-pointer and generating much of their offense off of turnovers, the hosts converted on 54 percent of their shot attempts. It paid dividends with Harvey, Lilly and Pivont all scoring in double figures, led by Harvey’s game-high 15 points.
“That’s what we have to do,” Meador said. “It poses more problems for your opponent when more than one or two people can score. We really emphasized this year to be unselfish and make that pass to the open man. Let’s just win at all costs. That means if somebody scores six and somebody scores 15, so be it. We want to win and we want to be a stronger team come February, come tournament time.”
Summers improves to 9-4 with the win while Nicholas County drops to 4-6.
The Lady Bobcats’ game against Wyoming East that was scheduled for Thursday has been postponed with a makeup date to be announced later. Their next scheduled game will be at Pikeview on Saturday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
NC: 8 7 10 13 – 38
SC: 14 18 18 10
Nicholas County
Adrienne Truman 12, Olivia Stone 8, Anastin Hornsby 5, Chloe McKinney 4, Mason Stone 5, Kelsi Foster 4
Summers County
Maggie Stover 5, Gracie Harvey 15, Avery Lilly 10, Abby Persinger 2, Liv Meador 8, Sullivan Pivont 10, Jesse Ward 4, Kaylee Jones 2, Cheyenne Smith 2, Quincie Stennett 2
3-point goals – NC: 3 (Truman, Stone, Hornsby); SC: 0.
