HINTON – Undoubtedly every team is likely to deal with Covid related issues at some point in the basketball season. For the River View girls team, those issues popped up prior to the season.
Set back by an early quarantine period, the Raiders are just starting to find themselves heading into week two of the high school basketball campaign.
With that as the backdrop, River View (3-1) faced a pesky Chapmanville team in the opening round of the Rogers Oil Classic Friday night.
Even though the rust showed at times, the Raiders were up to the challenge brought on by the Tigers. Paced by 18 points from Haylie Payne, 15 from Trista Lester and 12 from Ali Morgan, River View ran away from Chapmanville for a 63-44 win.
“I thought Trista Lester really stepped up for us,” River View head coach Gehrig Justice said. “We had that week that we lost to Covid and it has set us back a little bit. This was a good test for us. Chapmanville is really young, but they are talented. We knew they were good enough to beat us, so I am happy with my kids.”
While the Tigers had some good moments, it was not enough for head coach Kristina Gore.
“There were not enough good moments tonight. To be honest, I was pretty sickened with the effort out of two or three of them. I feel like it is very inconsistent, especially on the defensive end of the floor,” Gore said. “We had no intensity. River View wanted it more. They are very well coached and they are a seasoned, veteran team which doesn’t work in our favor. If somebody wants it more than you, they are going to get it every time.”
River View started fast and jumped out to an 11-2 advantage and led 13-6 after the first quarter.
The second quarter was a totally different ballgame and Chapmanville caught fire when foul trouble changed the rotation for the Raiders.
“We had the nine point lead before Haylie got in foul trouble. Katie Bailey hasn’t really played that position and we had two straight turnovers,” Justice said. “Then we tried to force one right before they hit a 3 and things got tight.”
The Tigers would lead briefly at 18-17, but a jumper from Chloe Mitchem and a strong scoring drive from Lester would help give River View a 25-22 lead at halftime.
Bailey’s return in the third quarter appeared to be the spark that the Raiders needed.
After another scoring drive from Lester, Bailey score the next six River View points to push the lead to double digits for the first time in the game.
“That is part of the rust where we haven’t had time to rep people in other positions,” Justice said of the second quarter struggles. “Hailey is a player that can do just about anything she wants to do. She is good, but she got those two fouls in the first quarter.”
The quick spurt to start the second half was the difference in the game and Chapmanville could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
“We didn’t keep people in front of us and got beat off the dribble,” Gore said. “We opened up too many holes and allowed too many layups in the paint. We didn’t do a very good job on the defensive boards either. All of that is a bad formula.”
River View will now battle Summers County Saturday in the championship game at approximately 7:45 p.m.
Chapmanville will face Montcalm at 6 p.m. in the consolation game.
C: 6 16 9 13 – 44
RV: 13 12 17 – 63
Chapmanville 44
Daizi Farley 4 , C. Thompson 4, J. Mahon 4, Haley Fleming 13, Laken Parks 3, C. Dingess 14, Brooke Christian 2 Totals: 16 11-20 44.
River View 63
Trista Lester 15, Haylie Payne 18, Chloe Mitchem 9, Katie Bailey 2, Brooke Fuller 2, Abigail Pruitt 5, Ali Morgan 12 Totals: 24 14-20 63.
3-pointers- C: 1 (Farley); RV: 1 (Lester).
