Charleston – Parkersburg Catholic coach Marty Vierheller doesn’t need many reminders of how last year’s Class AA championship loss to Wyoming East transpired.
But more often than not he’s had one with him all season long.
“Right here in my pocket I have the game stats from last year from the Wyoming East state championship game,” Vierheller said after Catholic’s 57-37 semifinal win over Petersburg. “I do that not to dwell on a negative but to continue to stay sharp as a coach and I’ll tell you why I do that – because these girls give me anything and if I don’t give them my best I’m cheating them and I refuse to do that.”
Though the schools are the same, the teams are largely different especially on the part of the Lady Warriors. Catholic graduated first-team all-stater Aaliyah Brunny as well as several other contributors headlined by Jenna Boice but East saw first-team all-state captain Skylar Davidson, who played 94 of 96 minutes in last year’s state tournament, as well as starers Sarah Saunders and Daisha Summers exit the program. The former two graduated and are now enjoying success at Glenville State, a program that’s ranked No. 1 in Division II. Summers, the second-team all-state captain transferred to Greenbrier East.
The two teams met earlier in the season with Catholic exacting its revenge. The Crusaderettes led comfortably throughout the first three quarters before blowing the doors off in the fourth quarter of a 62-28 blowout win at Logan.
Three months to the day when they last played, they’ll suit up again with a score to settle. The message East coach Angie Boninsegna has preached all year is growth and with one last game to play she’ll see just how much her team has grown.
“We’re so much better than we were then. We have a lot of respect, if it happens to be Parkersburg Catholic,” Boninsegna said after East’s 54-34 semifinal win over St. Marys Friday morning. “They’ve got a great program and we know we’re going to have to play well if we get that far. We’ll be a different team tomorrow. They played really well when we played them at Logan and they were a young team. We’ve settled in and we know our roles a little bit better now. We’ve really grown defensively and offensively and I think as a team. They’ve got each other’s backs out there. We’ll be relaxed and play our game whoever it is.”
The 28 points in that loss were a season low for East, but much of the reason for Boninsegna’s optimism that she’ll see a better performance from her squad comes from how much they’ve grown as well as the circumstances they were dealing with in that loss.
Hannah Blankenship, who had a double-double in last year’s title game, was hampered with a hamstring injury that made her doubtful to even play in that game. Adding to the ache was the fact Abby Russell, a first-team all-stater last season, was on the bench after tearing her ACL the day after the title game. She made her way back in January and has come along strong for the Lady Warriors, serving as the team’s sixth man since her return.
That’s not lost on Vierheller.
“Once again Angie has taken her players and she has developed them into, honestly, the best that they can be,” Vierheller said. “She’s an excellent coach. Yes, we played them the third game of the season and I know, and it is very, very true, that Abby did not play for Wyoming East in that game. And does she make a difference? She certainly does. She’s an excellent player and defender and terrific on the offensive end as well. But I think it’s also true Parkersburg Catholic has grown up a lot as well.
“When you look at ‘well okay, this is what happened at Logan in December’ but we’re playing with a much different lineup than the one that included a first-team all-stater last year in Aaliyah Brunny and Madison Ross and Jenna Boice. They were gone and that was grow-up time for Parkersburg Catholic at Logan. So I think we learned a lot about ourselves early. What does this have to do with tomorrow? Both teams are battle tested and both teams are extremely hungry. It’s going to be a green test for us for sure.”
Both teams hang their hat on defense as evidenced by their state tournament runs.
Dating back to last season, East has forced 20 turnovers in five consecutive games.
Catholic all-stater Leslie Huffman averages 23.8 points per game while Elaina Ross brings 12.7 per game to the table. Wyoming East is led by sophomore Maddie Clark who averages 14.4 points per game to g along with 4.2 steals per game.
Huffman, who struggled offensively with 14 points on 5 of 16 shooting is ready for the challenge, but doesn’t have anything special planned.
“Just play my game,” Huffman said. “It’s gotten us thus far and it will take us further.”
The championship will tip off at 12:30 p.m.at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center and can be viewed on the MetroNews Facebook page.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94