Hinton – Summers County and Wyoming East have been on a sectional championship collision course all season.
The much anticipated postseason showdown is now set in stone for Wednesday at New Richmond.
The Class AA No. 1 ranked Lady Warriors had already secured their spot in the big game as a result of earning the top-seed in Region 3, Section 2.
Summers County, ranked No. 3 in the last AP Poll, had to defeat a young, upset-minded Bluefield squad Monday to do its part for the big showdown.
Fighting off a sluggish start, the Bobcats came to life in the second half and dispatched the Beavers 56-29.
“This is one of those games where if you win, you are in and guaranteed two (more) games. You are guaranteed a regional final regardless if you win or lose on Wednesday,” Summers County head coach Chad Meador said. “Maybe we were a little nervous and perhaps looking ahead a little, but we settled in the second half and played pretty good.”
The home team raced out to a 9-2 lead and appeared poised to run off and hide.
However, cold shooting and careless turnovers allowed the visitors to narrow the gap and eventually take a second quarter lead.
Trailing 11-8, Bluefield’s Cara Brown opened the second period by drilling a 3-pointer to tie the game.
Abby Persinger then scored off an offensive rebound for the Bobcats, but the Beavers answered with a bucket from Adrienne Brown and took their first lead on a triple Krisalyn Dowell.
Avery Lilly answered the call for Summers with another score off of an offensive rebound that led to an old school 3-point play.
Summers never trailed again the rest of the night.
“Rebounding has been our Achilles heel this year. We have been getting beat on the boards and we have to fix that,” Bluefield head coach Ernie Gilliard said. “Even though we didn’t do a very good job of boxing out, we attempted to. We have to try and get better at rebounding next year. We have some kids with some length and height that will have another year of experience under their belt. It depends on how hard they work in the off-season and in the weight room.”
Even with the rebounding struggles, Bluefield trailed by just seven points at the break. The lead went to five after a steal and a layup from Adrienne Brown, but it was all Summers County from that point.
Over the remainder of the contest, the Bobcats started finding the range from deep and Gracie Harvey became unstoppable inside the paint.
Lilly canned a 3-ball and Harvey hit two free-throws for a 30-20 lead before a hard drive from Cara Brown cut the lead inside double digits for the final time.
A long ball from Sullivan Pivont and back-to-back scores from Harvey sparked a 10-2 run for a 40-24 lead with eight minutes to play.
“We ran a set where we switched (point guard) Liv (Meador) and Sullivan and screened the zone and Sullivan made a three. Then we came back down and Gracie made a nice bucket on the block,” Meador said. “Anytime you can consecutively score against a good team it is kind of disheartening. I was pleased with how we did that in the second half.”
Fighting some foul issues, Harvey scored 16 of her game-high 19 points in the second half.
“I want Gracie Harvey to dominate every game. Sometimes I am a little unfair to her, but I looked at the box score and she scored 19 points. I think it is a true testimony to her,” Meador said. “They were surrounding her, fronting her and they were behind her. She overcame those frustrations and put on a nice show in the second half.”
While Summers was finding various ways to score, Bluefield could manage just 11 points over the final 16 minutes.
“They were in a 1-2-2 (zone) to start the basketball game and then they came out in a 2-3 (zone). The biggest change was when we went up 16 points, we nullified their weave offense by sagging off in our man-to-man defense,” Meador said. “That seemed to change their game-plan. We settled in defensively at that point and kept moving the basketball and kept scoring.”
Now the focus for Summers County turns to Wyoming East.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, they haven’t beaten Wyoming East since Feb. 2016.
“I think for us it is mental. They have been in our head and it’s no secret. It has been like eight seasons since we beat them,” Meador said. “We haven’t played every year, but this is the first time since then that we think we have a chance. We will go down to New Richmond Wednesday and hopefully we have a plan in place and we play hard until the end.”
By making the sectional final, the Warriors and the Bobcats are guaranteed a spot in the regional round next week. What is at stake it where their respective games will be played.
The winner Wednesday will host either Chapmanville or Mingo Central, while the loser must go on the road in the regional round.
Ultimately the regional clash is the game that has the most at stake for both East and Summers.
“Make no mistake, we want to host a region. Our girls want to host a region, but so does Wyoming East,” Meador said. “I have said it since day one of practice, if you want to get to the state tournament, you have to beat Chapmanville or Mingo (Central).”
B: 8 10 6 5 – 29
SC: 11 14 15 16 – 56
Bluefield
Melania Hayes 5, Krisalyn Dowell 9, Desiray Jackson 2, Cara Brown 5, Adrienne Brown 6, Arionna Dowell 2. Totals: 12 3-9 29.
Summers County
Liv Meador 6, Avery Lilly 13, Gracie Harvey 19, Sullivan Pivont 12, Abby Persinger 4, Cheyenne Smith 2. Totals: 20 12-16 56.
