Charleston – Wyoming East’s team bus couldn’t get out of first gear on its way to the Charleston Coliseum for the Class AA title game Saturday morning.
The Lady Warriors’ offense faced that same struggle once it got there.
Shooting a paltry 28.2 percent from the floor, Wyoming East watched layup after layup roll out in a 67-35 loss  to Parkersburg Catholic Saturday afternoon in Charleston.
With the win Catholic avenges a 61-50 loss to East in last year’s Class AA title game.
“I think when we missed some easy shots there at the beginning of the game early. I think it would’ve been a different game,” East coach Angie Boninsegna said. “They shot the ball awful well and we missed some shots we normally would make. But you know one thing, we didn’t give up. We kept fighting til the end when the clock went down and that’s all we can ask of them.”
The contrast in shooting percentages told the story of the afternoon with the Crusaderettes shooting 53 percent on the day, including a blistering 59 percent from the field in the first half.
After a jumper from Lainie Ross and a 3-pointer from Mary Tokodi-Ruth staked Catholic to a 5-0 lead, East answered back with a pair of Hannah Blankenship free throws and a Kayley Bane layup to make it 5-4 at the 4:18 mark.
It was after a media timeout the avalanche ensued. Turnovers and breakdowns in the half court led to a 9-0 Catholic run that put the top-seeded Crusaderettes ahead 14-4 when the first quarter buzzer sounded.
A layup from Ross extended it to an 11-0 run early in the second before all-stater Abby Russell canned a 3 to calm the storm, though it served as more of a brief intermission. Leslie Huffman answered immediately with a pull-up trey from the top of the key, following with another after Maddie Clark split a pair of free throws.
Meanwhile The Lady Warriors couldn’t buy a bucket, missing layup after layup, finishing the half with just 3 of 15 their shots falling.
East struggled to help its own cause with careless turnovers on fumbled exchanges resulting in 23 Catholic points off of giveaways in the opening 16 minutes.
Even when they limited their turnovers the Crusaderettes executed with precision, breaking down East’s defense for open 3-point looks.
“They’re a good team, don’t get me wrong,” East guard Maddie Clark said. “But we also didn’t communicate on the screens. We normally switch but I feel like we didn’t talk as well as we normally do and it caused them to have the easy shots. It’s hard to comeback on a team that structured.”
“I just think when we got down big early it got in our heads,” East forward Hannah Blankenship said. “It’s just frustration and miscommunication stuff.”
Falling behind 26-8, all-stater Abby Russell helped keep pace for East, scoring the last five point of the half for the Lady Warriors but the end result was a 33-13 lead for Catholic at the break.
Out of the half the Crusaderettes wasted little time putting the contest away.
Another missed layup on East’s part led to a Jocelynn Thorn 3 just 19 seconds into the third quarter. Two minutes later it was rinse and repeat as a short, open baseline jumper rattled out and Thorn swished another.
“I believe we shot 60 percent in the first half and 50 for the game,” Parkersburg Catholic head coach Marty Vierheller said. “We were willing to make the extra pass. We really believed we could spread the floor. We ran, specifically one offense we haven’t ran much of at all. It wasn’t so much we were saving it for this game, it was just the right time to pull it out. We can game plan all we want, Coach Carr, Coach Richards and I, we were up late last night and there’s only so much you can do the night before the game.
“If you haven’t prepared for X number of months, you’re not going to cram it all in the night before the biggest game of the year. I think the biggest part of our shooting was our shot selection. Our girls have such faith in each other they chose the right shots at the right time … Jocelynn picked her moments beautifully.”
Back to back 3-pointers from Blankenship and Clark cut the deficit to 23 with 2:35 left in the third but a 7-0 run squeezed out any life East had left.
“Was this the best that we played this year? It’s really hard for me to dispute,” Vierheller said. “I can’t pick another game where we played to this level for four quarters. We picked one heck of a time to do it. I’m extremely proud of them.”
East, playing in its fifth Class AA championship game in as many state tournament trips (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022), finishes the season at 16-4 with two of its losses coming to Catholic and a third to Class AAA championship participant Logan. The Lady Warriors fall to 2-3 in championship games following Saturday’s loss.
Blankenship, having played her final game as a Lady Warrior, finishes her career having played for three of those teams (2019, ’20 and ’21). She finished with 10 points to lead East while Russell also added 10. Blankenship, an all-tournament selection, led the Class AA field with 29 total rebounds in three games as well as minutes played with 87.
“She’s been through a lot the last four years medically,” Boninsegna said of her lone senior. “But she’s never given up. She kept the faith and she got to go out on the last Saturday of her senior year. The only thing better would’ve been to be able to win it.”
“I’ve been blessed to be on both sides of this,” Blankenship said. “It’s part of it. It’s a game. There’s more to life than basketball, but outside of ball it’s about the relationships and the team. These past four years, I’ve given this program everything I’ve got.”
A loud ovation for senior Hannah Blankenship as she exits for the final time. Probably one of the best program kids I’ve covered. pic.twitter.com/9OVt01Vcrp
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 12, 2022
Catholic senior Leslie Huffman, who sported two championship game losses in her career entering Saturday, finished with a game-high 19 points while Thorn added 17. Mary Tokodi-Ruth finished with 12 points to go along with eight assists.
***
The Class AA all-tournament team consisted of Catholic’s Mary Tokodi-Ruth, Lainie Ross and Leslie Huffman, Wyoming East’s Hannah Blankenship, Kayley Bane and Maddie Clark, St. Mary’s Addie Davis and Petersburg’s Braylee Corbin. Wyoming East also walked away with the School Spirit Award for its cheering section.
Class AA All-Tournament
Addie Davis, St Marys
Maddie Clark, Wyoming East
Mary Tokodi-Ruth, Parkersburg Catholic
Braylee Corbin, Petersburg
Hannah Blankenship, Wyoming East
Lainie Ross, Parkersburg Catholic
Kayley Bane, Wyoming East
Leslie Huffman, Parkersburg Catholic pic.twitter.com/auZz2I0tmZ— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 12, 2022
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
