Gallery by Heather BelcherĀ
Crash the boards and follow your shot, especially inside the 15-foot circle.
Basketball coaches have preached that philosophy for years.
Thursday night, Beckley all-stater Josie Cross heeded that advice and sent the Flying Eagles home a winner.
With the score tied, Cross rebounded her own miss and banked it home with 14 seconds to play to lift Beckley past PikeView 39-37.
“Missing the first shot wasn’t quite the plan. I think I shot it too quick and I knew I had to go get it the way the ball came off the backboard. I made sure nothing was in my way, went and got the rebound and put it back in as quick as possible.”
PikeView immediately moved the ball up the court, but the Beckley defense would not budge in the waning seconds.
“I could have probably called a time out there, but I let it go hoping we could find something in the gap,” PikeView head coach Tracy Raban said. “We just didn’t attack the seam like I thought we would.”
Cross and Leiloni Manns stopped the baseline attack by the Panthers before a crucial deflection up top by Sarah Hopkins prevented a quality attempt to beat the buzzer.
“I am glad we got the win. It wasn’t pretty, but as they say it is good to pull out a win when you don’t play well,” Beckley head coach Brian Nabors said. “One thing I am really proud of is we almost gave it away, but with this being a young team, they didn’t hang their heads, they kept fighting. They did what they had to do on the defensive end and got a stop.”
After leading by as many as eight points in the third quarter, the Flying Eagles watched the lead slip away late in the final stanza.
A pair of free throws by Brooke Craft and three points from Haley Justice gave the Panthers a 35-34 advantage with 3:35 to play.
With both teams struggling to score all night, Hopkins stepped into a 3-ball at the most opportune time to give Beckley a 37-35 lead with 1:07 to play.
“That was a really big shot by our senior Sarah Hopkins. She needed that (shot). She wants it so bad where she has had so much adversity with injuries over her career,” Nabors said. “She has struggled some with her shot, but we believe in her. We want her to take that shot every single time. I hope that gave her a lot of confidence and helps her along.”
Hopkins admitted the huge make did give her a boost of confidence that also led to the key deflection in the final possession.
“After that shot was when I really started to feel it. I was missing left and right before, but that shot gave me some confidence,” Hopkins said. “It feels good to bounce back after taking a loss on Saturday.”
PikeView could not score following the Hopkins make, but senior Cat Farmer came up with a big steal and two key free-throws to tie the game at 37-apiece with 33 ticks on the clock.
“That kid has worked her tail off,” Raban said. “She will go up against anybody and she showed it tonight. We go as she goes right now.”
Unfortunately for the Panthers, quality defense on the last Beckley possession went awry due to a rebounding breakdown.
“I thought Jaelynn Shrewsbury had done a very good job one-on-one against (Cross) and made her force up a poor shot,” Raban said. “I liked the shot that she got, we just didn’t get the rebound. That has been us all year long. I would like to know how many second and third chances that they got tonight.”
“I felt like our first defensive possessions on them were solid throughout the whole night,” Raban continued. “When you give them second and third chances with their height, you are not going to win a ball game. We have been preaching it all year long about giving up too many second and third chance points. That is what got us tonight.”
Besides the breakdowns rebounding, the biggest problem for PikeView was just simply getting the ball to go through basket.
“I thought we executed (our) offense well. I told the girls that we had opportunities. They executed and attacked the zone well. When they went man (to-man) our plays were there, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop,” Raban lamented. “I would love to know what we shot. I would say it is a good 20 (percent) or lower. We didn’t put the ball in the hoop and they did a little bit more than we did tonight. It was their night and not ours.”
Cross and Justice led their respective team with 13 points. Craft had 11 for the Panthers(3-2) and Somalia Nelson score 10 for the Flying Eagles (2-2).
PV: 9 10 9 9 – 37
B: 10 12 10 7 – 39
PikeView
Hannah Harden 6, Brooke Craft 11, Cat Farmer 4, Haley Justice 13, Riley Meadows 3.
Beckley
Addison Walker 3, Josie Cross 13, Samalia Nelson 10, Sarah Hopkins 3, Karsyn Gunter 2, Leloni Manns 8.