After four years of high school basketball, the hope for any senior is to deliver when their team needs them the most.
That was theme of sectional week with several area seniors guiding their teams to sectional championships. It began on Wednesday with Wyoming East’s Hannah Blankenship, who scored in double figures for the fifth time in her last six contests. This time it was a season-high 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting from the floor, helping the Lady Warriors defeated Summers County and earned the sectional championship in the process.
It was a welcome change for the senior who struggled through a shoulder injury, scoring in double figures just once before the month of January.
“I knocked down a couple of shots early and my teammates kept feeding me the ball,” Blankenship said after the game. “All credit to them for getting me open looks. Thankfully they were going down for me tonight. I’ve just been in physical therapy and overall taking better care of my body in that aspect. It’s definitely helped a ton because I’ve gotten more arch on my shot so it’s definitely paying off.”
The next night in Gardner it was the same result for PikeView’s Anyah Brown, but the path to a breakout was a little different.
The senior forward had struggled prior to the postseason, scoring eight points combined in the Panthers’ final three games of the regular season.
A 14-point showing in the sectional opener against Independence warmed her up before she exploded in the championship game against Shady Spring.
She scored 25 points on 10 of 17 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds in a 32-point win over Shady Spring that avenged a loss in last year’s sectional championship game.
The points were welcome, but as a leader it was for more important that Brown get her other teammates involved and inspire confidence in a group comprised mostly of underclassmen. She did that, dishing out six assists as well.
“Honestly I think that when we all are involved, we play so much better instead of it being like a one-man show,” Brown said. “I was just like if it’s not me, it has to be somebody else.”
Of course for both players it would be remiss to expect anything less.
PikeView was considered an afterthought when the 2020 state tournament was canceled due to the pandemic, closing out the career of several standout seniors. Brown, along with her classmate Hannah Perdue, helped the Panthers notch their second consecutive state tournament berth last season, combining for 47 points in a road win in the regional co-final.
Brown scored 21 points in that win, rewriting the history book at PikeView. That victory secured back-to-back state tournament appearances for the second time in program history (2011-13). Now she looks to add to the legacy she’s helped build, along with Perdue, by tying the program record with three straight appearances in Charleston.
For Blankenship the parallels are eerily similar.
She played sparingly as a freshman on the Class AA runner-up team, moved into the starting lineup as a sophomore – falling to Brown’s Panthers in the regional co-final – and helped the team to the state tournament as a junior.
On the biggest stage, she thrived.
When Parkersburg Catholic elected to start trapping East’s all-state point guard Skylar Davidson, Blankenship benefitted, finding the open spots in the defense to can three 3-pointers. She finished the state championship game with 11 points, 10 rebounds and one ring.
The accomplishments of each senior will be noted in their scrapbooks as prime performances but the job isn’t finished. The goal for each is clear – win four more games. Doing so becomes considerably tougher as the level of competition rises but their performances during sectional play are good starts.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on twitter @tjack94
