Gallery by Greg Barnett
Gardner – Westside put together 11 minutes of encouraging effort on offense Friday evening, scoring 28 points over that span.
The other 21 minutes were problematic and costly.
The Renegades compiled just 20 points through the first three quarters, seeing a comeback bid fall short in a 51-40 loss to PikeView in the Class AAA Region 3 Section 1 championship in Gardner.
The win marks the third consecutive sectional championship for PikeView which will host Sissonville Wednesday in a Region 3 co-final for a spot in the state tournament. Westside will travel to Lewis County that same night with the same stakes.
Playing at a frantic pace, Westside took an early lead at 8-6 following a jumper from Kenzie Morgan. Over the next 21 minutes the Renegades managed just 12 points.
PikeView in contrast compiled 16 over the final five minutes of the first quarter alone.
“I think we settled down,” PikeView head coach Tracy Raban said. “I think we had a lot of nerves coming out. Maybe too much adrenaline on both ends and for everybody the energy was going but I think we settled down with our nerves and were able to settle down offensively and get what we wanted. I mean, I figured we’d see some junk defenses and we had worked on it the last couple of days of how to attack and I think we settled down and were able to get the easy shots and separate.”
Riley Meadows tied the game for PikeView at 8-8 before Haley Justice bumped her point total to eight with a pair of buckets that gave PikeView the lead for good. Justice then passed the baton to Cat Farmer who made a layup and later a 3 to push the advantage to 17-8.
Jaelynn Shrewsbury took it from there with a jumper and a 3 to cap the first quarter.
Westside broke its seven-minute skid early in the second with a Karsyn Paynter layup and Kaitlyn Lester later added another layup to make it a 25-12 game with 4:29 left in the half. Then came another scoring drought, one that didn’t snap until the 6:44 mark of the third quarter.
“We didn’t get into an offense,” Westside head coach Darren Thomas said. “Cat was putting a lot of pressure on us up top and they were overplaying their wings a lot and we just couldn’t get down in to where we get our picks set. We were starting it near half court. Cat put a lot of pressure on us and they’ve done that a lot the two times we played them this year. But tonight we just couldn’t get into our offense. We played decent throughout the year with them but just got pushed back to half court.”
Defensively the Renegades had no answer for PikeView center Haley Justice who scored 14 of her game-high 16 points in the first half.
“All year long we played a box-and-one or a triangle-and-two and (Justice) came up a lot to the top the first couple of times we played them” Thomas said. “Tonight she gave us a lot of trouble when we extended on those wings and it left her one-on-one down there a lot and we weren’t physical enough the first half. They just pushed us around. She got position wherever she wanted and listen, she 6-foot-1, 6-foot-2 and she’s a good player. We just couldn’t match up with that tonight.”
Through three quarters all was swell with the hosts leading 43-20.
But complacency nearly cost them.
Kenzie Morgan jumpstarted a 10-0 Renegade run in the fourth with a layup and 3. Sarah Lilly later added a free throw and Paynter a layup to keep the month rolling. Lester capped the spurt with a pair of free throws and with 3:39 remaining the visitors were within striking distance, down 43-30. But the Renegades could draw no closer than nine points, doing so with under a minute to play.
“I’m having a hard time enjoying it because the way we finished the game,” Raban said. “You know, it’s tournament time. You’ve got to play four quarters. I knew they weren’t going to quit. We told them in the locker room. It doesn’t matter what the score is, you’e in tournament time. You gotta play four quarters. I called a timeout and told them, ‘Hey, this isn’t a good timeout. You’re not finishing this game.’ We had a 20-point ball game that should be a 30-point ball game and we’re gonna make it a fight. I just felt like we went away from executing and we didn’t put the ball in the hoop and we lost focus on the defensive end the floor. They were able to get loose balls and backside shots and I just felt like we lost focus. And it’s something I’m gonna have to challenge them to clean it up because from here down the road you’ve gotta play four quarters. You can’t play three quarters.”
For both teams the road ahead is full of unknowns. Westside didn’t play Lewis County this season nor did PikeView face Sissonville. Raban has seen the Indians though and has an idea of what to expect against them and their star player Kynna Britton, a 22 points per game scorer.
“They’re kind of like us,” Raban said. “We don’t have a 30-point scorer like that but we have Meadows who everybody keys in on. It’s going to be a matter of the key players, the role players and who’s going to contain and who’s gonna step up. Are we going to be able to contain their role players? I mean, Britton’s gonna get her points. We can’t let her get 30 and If she does get 30 we can’t let the other ones chip in and get six, eight or 10 points. I like our defense and I like the way we pressure. I don’t know if they’ve seen a defense like that. We’ve got to bring it on the defensive end of the floor and contain her and contain the role players.”
W: 8 4 8 20 – 40
PV: 22 9 12 8 – 51
Westside
Kaitlyn Lester 12, Kenzie Morgan 8, Rylee Brown 2, Daisha Cline 8, Sarah Lilly 1, Karsyn Paynter 9
PikeView
Hannah Harden 4, Brooke Craft 8, Cat Farmer 7, Jaelynn Shrewsbury 7, Haley Justice 16, Riley Meadows 9
