Gallery by Greg Barnett
Gardner – Of PikeView’s 25 turnovers Wednesday night, the final one proved to be the backbreaker.
Trailing Lewis County 52-50 with 5.5 second left, PikeView’s inbound pass from the sideline was stolen by Ella Pinkney who was fouled and nailed both free throws to cement a 54-50 victory in the Class AAA Region 3 Co-Final in Gardner and with it, a spot in next week’s state tournament in Charleston.
The Minutemaids earned the No. 5 seed and play No. 4 Ripley in the state quarterfinals next week at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The steal by Pinkney capped a stellar night for the standout sophomore who poured in a game-high 28 points, came up with another late steal that tied the game and dished out the assist on what ended up being the winning shot.
“Ella Pinkney is a player,” Lewis County head coach Joe Nichols said. “We ask her to guard the best player every single night, we ask her to handle the ball, we ask her to score and we ask her to do everything. She responds and she does it. She just does and she’s a sophomore and shows so much maturity for her age. She’s a good player, a real good player.”
Coaching a team without a senior, PikeView head coach Tracy Raban came away disappointed in her team’s carelessness with the ball, particularly in the final frame where the Panthers accumulated eight of their 25 giveaways.
“At first I’d say it was their defense but as the game went on I thought we adjusted to it,” Raban said. “I think it was just we were lackadaisical with the ball and lack of execution. I hate to say lack of focus, but with the type of situation that you’re in, I think we just got lazy with the ball and didn’t execute.”
It was a rollercoaster night with each team throwing haymakers in the waning minutes but the visitors survived the valleys to peak when necessary.
It began midway through the second quarter when the Panthers took a 28-19 lead, poised to pull away. A Lewis County timeout remedied the issues. An 11-2 Minutemaid run was capped by a layup from Pinkney, tying the game at 30 heading into the break.
“I just told them to get back to what we do,” Nichols said of the timeout. “We were getting a little bit wide on our ball screens and limiting ourselves to one side of the floor. We wanted to play in the middle and try to finish at the rim but they weren’t executing. I think the crowd got to us because it was a little loud but when we came out of that we started executing and made our way back in the ball game.”
Going blow for blow in the third quarter, Lewis County held a 41-39 advantage heading into the final frame and neither team led by more than three in the fourth with PikeView taking a 47-44 advantage late on a Riley Meadows layup.
Hoping to slow the game down and force the Minutemaids to foul, the plan never transpired as steal by Pinkney led to the tying 3 from Bryn Hunt. Pinkney and Brooke Craft exchanged tying buckets before Pinkney found Hunt for a layup that made it a 51-49 game with 38 seconds left.
Still the Panthers had numerous opportunities to tie or take the lead.
The first came after a missed layup was grabbed twice by the hosts – once by Brooke Craft who missed a followup and once by Hannah Harden who was tied up for a jump ball.
The second came on a loose ball foul on the inbounds pass sent Jaelynn Shreswsbury to the line with 10 seconds left where she nailed the first before missing the second off the right side of the rim.
Forced to send the Minutemaids to the free throw line, they hit just one attempt leaving PikeView in a 52-50 deficit. That’s where the Panthers squandered their final opportunity of the evening.
“I was sending Riley off of a double screen hoping I could get her loose and attack to the basket,” Raban said. “If that didn’t work I was getting the ball to (Jocelyn) Hall coming off of a double screen down the middle and sending her to the basket because I felt those two had been the most productive. Riley, she’s our player so maybe I could get her loose and get a basket but Hall’s been the next one we could go to and if we don’t make it have Craft get on the boards, but we didn’t execute.”
The loss snaps PikeView’s state tournament streak at three in a row. It also marks the first time Raban, who took over the program ahead of the 2021 season, has missed the state tournament at the helm.
Lewis County meanwhile will take an eight-game winning streak to Charleston along with a 20-5 record.
“There’s no better feeling than walking out on the Civic Center floor,” Nicholas said. “I think the biggest thing is we’ve changed our culture here at Lewis County and changed our expectations. We don’t want to just show up. We want to try and make our run. These our goals we set to get there.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
LC: 16 14 11 13 – 54
PV: 19 11 9 13 – 50
Lewis County
Payten Goodwin 5, Hope Dever 3, Ella Pinkney 28, Lillie Cayton 1, Elleonna Stump 6, Bryn Hunt 11
PikeView
Hannah Harden 8, Brooke Craft 16, Cat Farmer 8, Jaelynn Shrewsbury 1, Jocelyn Hall 7, Riley Meadows 12
3-point goals – LC: 3 (Dever 1, Hunt 2); PV: 0
