Gallery by Karen Akers
Gardner – When Shady Spring boys basketball coach Ronnie Olson was guiding his team to a state championship last year, he was adamant he wasn’t going to change or wash his socks, citing superstition.
His daughter, PikeView senior Anyah Brown, seems to have inherited that trait.
Switching from long sleeves to short sleeves prior to the postseason, the senior forward has hit a new gear.
Averaging 19.5 points and nine rebounds in two postseason games entering Tuesday’s regional final against Herbert Hoover, the senior maintained her scorching pace. She scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Panthers toppled the Huskies 55-29, winning a Class AAA Region 3 co-final and punching a ticket to next week’s state tournament.
“Honestly I was just trying to get my groove and ever since I got these, yeah I’m superstitious,” Brown laughed. “I’m wearing these babies every single game. I’m going to wash these though. I don’t want to be stinky out there.”
In their final home game regardless of the outcome, Brown and fellow senior Hannah Perdue made sure it was memorable for all the right reasons.
Perdue drew first blood two minutes in with a pull-up 3 that sent the crowd into a frenzy. The next score had the senior all-stater’s fingerprints all over it as she swung the ball to Brown in the right corner who was true on a triple of her own. Caroline Woody answered for Hoover on the following possession, grabbing an offensive rebound and canning her own 3 and Regan Geary added to the Huskies’ cause with a layup to cut it to 6-5.
The response from PikeView was swift, courtesy of Brown and Perdue.
Perdue found Brown in the high post, who turned around and nailed a jumper to make it 8-5.
The Perdue to Brown connection working early. PV up 8-5 pic.twitter.com/dgSBcdxTYM
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 2, 2022
A 3 from Perdue capped the first quarter, staking the hosts to an 11-5 lead.
The sharpshooting and defensive effort told the story of the half for the Panthers as they outscored Hoover 16-4 in the second quarter, converting on 50 percent of their 3s (6 of 12) for a 27-9 advantage at the break.
“Really the last two weeks of practice there’s been lots of shooting,” PikeView head coach Tracy Raban said. “We found our groove on the defensive end of the floor and knew what we had to do. We made a few minor adjustments with how to defend Herbert Hoover but we really tried to get as many shots up as we could the last couple of weeks because we struggled with that. Just for the kids to get confident – I told them to be confident. These two seniors, they didn’t want to lose their last game at home. They didn’t want it to end tonight, much less lose their last game on their home court and they came out with intensity and ready to go and everybody else fed off of it.”
While the Panthers were efficient, converting on 43 percent of their field goal attempts in the half, the same couldn’t be said for the Huskies who were 3 of 19 from the field in the opening 16 minutes with 10 turnovers to their name.
“They play good man-to-man and we got good looks,” Hoover coach John Vencill said. “We couldn’t capitalize on the ones we got. Credit to their defense, they did a good job tonight.”
The 29 points surrendered were a far cry from the 58 Hoover scored when the two teams met two weeks ago at Hoover. Raban credited it to a defensive adjustment made on Sasha Savetava, who finished with six points on Tuesday after scoring 25 when the teams met on Feb. 12 – a 60-58 PikeView win.
“We made the adjustment in the high post with their post player (Savetava),” Raban said. “We wanted to three-quarter deny her and when she got the ball we wanted to immediately retreat one step because she likes to go to the left and we let her go to the left all night the last time we played. We had Brooke Craft start on her and Anyah gave her some breaks and I felt like it started with Cat Farmer on (Taylor Ray). She’s tremendous going to the left and Cat was determined and wanted to do it and I think it started with that end of the floor and containing Ray.”
The second half proved no better for the Huskies who were outscored 17-8 in the third quarter, trailing by 27 entering the final frame and never threatening afterwards.
For Perdue and Brown the trip to the state tournament is the third consecutive of their careers, tying the run the program went on from 2011-2013.
“We’re looked at as the underdogs,” Perdue said. “Everyone looks at us young and thinks we don’t have what it takes to be at states. As leaders and captains of the team, me and Anyah look at the team like any other leaders would look at their team. I think we’re mentally more ready this year. Last year we had three freshmen going into Charleston that didn’t know what it was like and as a junior it was still scary for me. This year we’ll be a little more relaxed and our confidence will still be there with us ready to play.”
Brown and Perdue finished with 20 points each in the win while freshman Riley Meadows added 10.
Regan Gray led Hoover with seven points.
PikeView secures the No. 5 seed in next week’s state tournament at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center and will play defending Class AAA champion Nitro at 9 p.m. on Wednesday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Click here for the full State Tournament seedings
FINAL
PikeView 55, Herbert Hoover 29The Panthers will make their third consecutive trip to the state tournament #wvgirlsbb pic.twitter.com/zqG77w2GeE
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 2, 2022
HH: 5 4 8 12 – 29
PV: 11 16 17 11 – 55
Herbert Hoover
Taylor Ray 9, Regan Gray 7, Caroline Woody 5, Sasha Savetava 6, Paige Canterbury
PikeView
Hannah Harden 1, Brooke Craft 4, Hannah Perdue 20, Anyah Brown 20, Riley Meadows 10
3-point goals – HH: 4 (Ray 1, Geary 2, Woody 1); PV: 7 (Perdue 4, Brown 2, Meadows 1)
