Seven months ago Parkersburg Catholic and Wyoming East met in the Class AA championship game.
On Saturday at the Wildcat Classic in Logan, they’ll meet for the first time since May when the Lady Warriors snapped Catholic’s 44-game winning streak en route to the second title in program history.
While it’s billed as a rematch, and in many cases is, many of the faces from May’s meeting will be absent on the East side.
All-state guard Skylar Davidson graduated, fellow all-state guard Abby Russell is out until at least January after tearing her ACL the day after the championship and second-team all-state captain Daisha Summers transferred to Greenbrier East.
Making matters worse is the Lady Warriors’ lone senior, Hannah Blankenship, is questionable with a hamstring tweak. Blankenship was a key part of last season’s win, punishing Catholic with a barrage of 3-pointers when it tried to trap Davidson. She finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the win.
“We know we’re going to face a tough team,” East coach Angie Boninsegna said. “We’re a younger team. This is a totally different team than the one we had in May. The kids are all adjusting to new roles.”
The Crusaderettes return their own all-stater in Leslie Huffman, a two-time first team selection. The senior guard is one of the best two-way players in the state. She averaged 19.8 points per game last year to go along with 3.6 steals per game.
“It will be really intense cause it was when we met last time,” Boninsegna said. “I know a lot of people are talking about it but we just want to build our intensity and play our game. We can’t get too caught up in everything. We’re a totally different team.”
Boninsegna will be watching how her team responds early as well. The Lady Warriors haven’t played since Nov. 30 with a scheduled game against Liberty being canceled. Last year’s team did fine with long layoffs, playing only 12 games across two months due to quarantines at the school.
“It’s always a concern,” Boninsegna said. “I tried to get another game this week. We need it because It’s hard to simulate game-like conditions because this is high intensity.”
The two teams will meet Saturday at 6:50 p.m. at Willie Akers Arena in Logan.
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Wyoming East-Parkersburg Catholic won’t be the only rematch from last year’s state tournament slate.
PikeView and Logan, two teams that met in the Class AAA quarterfinals will play Friday at 7:45. Logan won last season’s matchup 61-30, outscoring the Panthers 19-6 in the third quarter.
“It’s going to be tough,”PikeView coach Tracy Raban said. “I think last year the girls were a little shellshocked and some of the younger ones were content to get to the state tournament. This season they want more and we’ll probably have to go through Logan to get it. I think the girls are really looking forward to this matchup because they want to show them what we’re really about.”
The draw is the matchup of two first-team all-state guards in Hannah Perdue and Peyton Ilderton but the game itself will likely come down to the role players. That was the case last season as the younger Panthers shot just 21 percent from the floor.
Meanwhile Logan’s Abby Meyers led all scores with 20 points.
“We have to contain (Ilderton),” Raban said. “We can’t let her explode and dominate the game. And I’m sure they feel the same way about Hannah. But the Myers kid put 20 up on us. Our role players need to step up and show they’re ready of this stage. It’s going to be a big test for us early. It’s a matchup of two Top 10 teams and we weren’t ready for that last year. We’re hoping it’s different this year and we come out and play Lady Panther basketball.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
