The last two years have yielded success for PikeView.
In some senses the Panthers may have even overachieved.
In 2020 they came to Charleston as the No. 6 seed, defeating No. 3 Fairmont Senior, the reigning Class AA champion. Last year, after suffering losses to graduation, they rallied out of a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Sissonville on the road and return to Charleston as an underdog.
The Panthers fell in last year’s quarterfinal game against Logan, but it served as good experience for a team breaking in four new starters, three of which were freshmen at the time.
On Wednesday the Panthers will face another monumental challenge when they play No. 4 Nitro, the reigning Class AAA champion.
Despite graduating 2021 Mary Ostrowski co-winner Bailee Goins, the Wildcats are experienced. When Goins exited last year’s title game after tearing an ACL in the first half, the current group of Nitro players held strong, delivering a performance the sealed a title.
Now the task for the Panthers is a familiar one – dethrone a reigning champion. Fortunately for PikeView, the scouting report reads eerily similar to those put out on the Panthers themselves. Nitro is led by all-state guard Taylor Maddox and flanked by a bevy of role players that bring toughness and size to the table.
“By watching film and doing some scouting reports I think it’s a very similar team,” PikeView coach Tracy Raban said. “I think it’s the spitting image of us with Maddox and (Hannah) Perdue. I think it’s going to be a matter of which team’s role players step up and contribute. I like our matchup but like I told the girls today at practice – they are the defending state champs and they’re going to have confidence and intensity coming in and will want to defend that title. So we’ve got to be able to match that intensity level and go in with confidence ourselves. But overall I think we’re very similar on paper.”
While PikeView starters Anyah Brown and Hannah Perdue have experienced the joys of victory in Charleston – sporting a 1-1 career record on the Coliseum floor – their younger teammates haven’t. Raban herself has as a player, winning two state championship when she was at Mercer Christian in the early 2000s and hopes that her experience can aid the Panthers in their title hopes.
“I tell them everything you work for during the season and the offseason has to pay off,” Raban said. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, lots of learning curves and it’s time to put it all together. The missed layups, the silly turnovers, losing focus on the defensive end of the floor – that stuff has to go. You better bring your A game and be ready to compete night in and night out. You’re playing against teams that want to be there and are competitive and very fundamentally sound. We have to bring that and relax and have fun.
“Last year we went up there and were just content to be there. This year it’s a different mindset. They want to go and compete and I’ve got all five starters back that were there and they felt like they got embarrassed last year. They really didn’t know what to expect but now it’s do or die and lay it all on the court and not question yourself afterwards. What we’ve been doing the last two weeks, if we do that I like our chances against them.”
For Raban, in her second year as the Panthers’ head coach, preparing has been easier this time around. Her all-state guard Hannah Perdue has started two state tournament games and fellow senior Anyah Brown has started one and played meaningful minutes in another.
The team knows what to expect by now and has even tried to simulate the venue. They’ve played two games at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center and are practicing at the Brushfork Armory in the lead up to Wednesday night’s matchup.
“I was speaking to myself and last year they were big-eyed and didn’t know what to expect,” Raban said. “This year it’s been all ears and they’ve wanted to watch game film and have asked questions when I’m talking about personnel or scheme. They’re all focused and keyed in to what the goal is and it’s a totally different preparation this year.”
PikeView will open state tournament play Wednesday night at 9 p.m. against Nitro.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
