Gallery by Heather Belcher
Charleston – Missed layups have been an alarming trend for PikeView this season.
The easy buckets haven’t come quite as easily as Panthers head coach Tracy Raban would hope and it looked like when the tying one rolled off of the rim with less than 10 seconds left in regulation, it would be the Panthers’ undoing.
Hannah Harden had other thoughts.
With one last shot, a missed field goal attempt found the hands of Harden who corralled the offensive rebound and put it back at the buzzer, sending the Panthers’ quarterfinal game to overtime where they beat defending Class AAA state champion Nitro 55-45 Wednesday in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
But Hannah Harden at the buzzer! To OT we go tied 42-42! #wvgirlsbb pic.twitter.com/62QBU4DyTj
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 10, 2022
With the win PikeView advances to Friday’s Class AAA semifinal game where it will play No. 1 Fairmont Senior at 7:15 p.m.
“I talked to them after our last walkthrough before we left,” Raban said. “I told them ‘There’s going to be somebody that’s going to be that hero. It might not be Hannah Perdue or Anyah Brown but who’s it going to be?’ I said ‘I challenge you, it’s going to be somebody’ and it was Hannah (Harden) tonight. She got the offensive rebound and went back up with it and it was her tonight. I’ll take it!”
For numerous reasons the end result seemed unlikely to favor PikeView.
For starters the Panthers trailed by 11 in the first quarter and were forced to foul after their first shot at tying rimmed out with under 10 seconds to go. But a pair of missed free throws from Nitro with nine seconds to play set the stage for Harden to shine. A drive and floater from Hannah Perdue was off the mark and Harden benefitted.
“I really don’t know, but it worked” Perdue said of her shot attempt that was corralled by Harden. “To be honest I don’t even remember.”
“For me it wasn’t planned. I was just there at the right moment,” Harden added.
“I think it was a shot,” Raban said. “Hannah (Harden) was just in the right place at the right time. When we drew it up we said ‘Get the ball in Hannah’s (Perdue) hands and go.’ These kids have been in the position all night long and they know Hannah’s going to go and they get in position to get that offensive rebound and it was Harden tonight and she went back up strong and finished for us.”
Early it appeared the Panthers would be out of the game before the fourth quarter even began. The post play and size of Nitro bigs Danielle Ward, Lena Elkins and Emily Lancaster – the latter of which finished with 17 points and 18 rebounds – frustrated PikeView’s pick-and-roll offense. It led to a 15-4 deficit nearly seven minutes into the game but a 3 from senior Anyah Brown chipped it at the end of the first.
Perdue, who was held scoreless in the opening quarter, found a rhythm in the second, scoring six points as the Panthers trailed 25-17 heading into the intermission.
The third quarter belonged solely to PikeView as it outscored Nitro 10-4 to make it a two-point game after three.
“He (Nitro coach Pat Jones) threw a curveball at me at first,” Raban said. “I didn’t expect – we were thrown off guard. We went to a 2-3 zone and hadn’t played that all season. I told them after a timeout ‘You’ve got to believe in something. We’ve got to adjust to their bigs,’ but as the game went on we went into a 2-3 matchup and into man. I think these kids, if I tell them we’re not playing man, they figure out how to play man. They relaxed and figured it out. They had mismatches with the two bigs and there’s somebody out there on the court that’s a mismatch and the girls settled down and let the game come to them and found the opening.”
Perdue carried the momentum from the third to the fourth when a floater from the all-stater tied the game, a theme over the final period of regulation as the two tied five times.
Though it looked as if the Panthers’ run would come to an end with two minutes to play.
A pair of free throws from Nitro freshman Ava Edwards broke a 36-36 tie and the young guard followed it with a layup after Lancaster split a pair of charity tosses. The flurry gave Nitro a 41-36 lead as it looked to pull away.
But with 1:10 left PikeView’s own freshman in Riley Meadows fired back with a free throw and Brooke Craft followed with a layup. The two teams proceeded to trade layups before the sequence of events that led to Harden’s tying shot.
Still the job wasn’t finished but with momentum on their side the Panthers attacked from the jump and never relented.
Perdue gave PikeView the lead for good on a floater and Harden finished at the bucket again to extend it to four. An assortment of free throw attempts from Brown, Perdue and Meadows capped a 9-0 run to open the overtime period, sealing the deal and sending PikeView to the semis.
“Personally I never thought we didn’t have a chance,” Perdue said. “Like (Raban) said, we didn’t let our heads hang. Of course we get down sometimes but in a game like this we just know what we have to do and we just do it. But we don’t think negatively about what’s going on.”
Up next the Panthers will play a familiar foe in Fairmont Senior, led by all-stater Meredith Maier and two-time Mary Ostrowksi winner Marley Washenitz.
The two teams met in the Class AA semifinals in 2020 where PikeView defeated the Polar Bears 59-55.
Raban was coaching at Princeton that season but Brown and Perdue both played meaningful minutes in that win.
“Honestly Marley’s one of the best in the state,” Brown said. “It’s going to be difficult but like Coach Raban says, I think we truly believe we can do anything. It doesn’t matter if they’re No. 1 in the state, undefeated or not. Like she said, they’re good. They’re really good, but we’ve just got to come out there with intensity and matchup, play – play ball.”
Perdue led all players with a game-high 20 points while Harden finished with eight to go along with 10 rebounds. Anyah Brown added a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Edwards (10 points) and Lancaster were the only Wildcats in double figures.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
