Gallery by Tina Laney
New Richmond – The first meeting of the girls high school basketball season between Summers County and defending Class AA state champion Wyoming East didn’t yield a pleasant outcome for the Bobcats in Hinton.
Thursday night when head coach Chad Meador and his team journeyed to Wyoming County, the game was even less enjoyable.
After knocking off the Bobcats 49-24 in December, the No. 3-ranked Lady Warriors handed the visitors another lopsided loss, 65-27.
“We have a lot of respect for Chad and his program and we knew the game was going to be a dogfight,” Wyoming East head coach Angie Boninsegna said. “Our defense, I think, set the tone. That is what we have to do every game. We have to come out, play defense, rebound and hope our offense will feed off our defense.”
Along with playing tough on-ball defense, Wyoming East has been known to test the opponents physical makeup. Thursday night, the Bobcats did not handle that challenge well according to their coach.
“I thought Wyoming East beat us in every aspect of the basketball game. They obviously outscored us and they out-rebounded us,” Meador lamented. “They are a very physical basketball team and we kinda laid down. They got every loose basketball and they played extremely good defense. We just kinda fizzled.”
Madison Clark got the ball rolling for East with a score before Kayley Bane converted her inbound steal into a corner 3-ball.
A steal from Hannah Blankenship and a coast-to-coast drive resulted in a pair of made free-throws for the WVU Tech commit and a quick 7-0 lead.
Collen Lookabill curled down the lane on the next East offensive trip for an easy bucket and Bane capped the 11-0 run with a stickback.
“They are physical and we are not as physical as we need to be. When it comes to playing great teams like Wyoming East, you have to match their physicality,” Meador emphasized. “Even then, you have to hope you can score some. They are shooting the basketball and their teammates are on the backside trying to get that offensive rebound.”
A jumper from Maggie Stover broke the ice for the Bobcats who still trailed by nine points after the first quarter.
An 8-0 spurt to start the second quarter helped balloon East’s advantage to 32-11 at halftime.
Clark’s bucket to open the quarter was again the catalyst for East’s run which included two buckets on run-outs from Abby Russell and a driving score from freshman Cadee Blackburn for two of her 13 points on the night.
The talented freshman also handed out six assists.
“We are blessed with some quick guards and we played good on-ball defense tonight,” Boninsegna said. “Colleen is usually the one that is on the point and Maddy does a good job. I thought tonight our interior defense was really good. Hannah had a great defensive game for us. They have two big girls and she fronted them and made some plays for us.”
Struggling most of the night with the pressure up top, even when Summers was afforded an attempt to get the ball inside, the results were not good.
“We are a small team, so we want our focus to be on-ball pressure, with our bigs doing what they can to make the pass difficult going inside,” Boninsegna said. “When they were able to get the ball over us, our help-side defense was good most of the time.”
Wyoming East out-rebounded Summers 39-20, including 19 offesnive rebounds, and had 21 steals on the night.
Blackburn, Russell, Clark and Blankenship had four steals apiece and Alivia Monroe collected eight rebounds to go with her eight points.
“We are used to making the game out of control. When the game is out of control, we are typically in control,” Meador said. “That is what Wyoming East has now. Not only do they make it hectic and chaotic, but they are in control and can score.”
Clark led all scorers with 15, while Russell tallied 12 points and Bane had eight. Sullivan Pivont led Summers with 12 points and Liv Meador scored 10.
After a setback at Mingo Central earlier in the week, Boninsegna was pleased with her team’s performance Thursday.
“We have had an interesting two weeks. Some practices, we have only had six or seven players that were healthy,” Boninsegna said. “We are just getting back in the swing of things. Abby is now back with us, so we are getting used to our rotation. I thought we responded well tonight.”
SC: 6 5 9 7 – 27
WE: 15 17 20 23 – 65
Summers County
Maggie Stover 4, Gracie Harvey 2, Liv Meador 10, Sullivan Pivont 12, Jesse Ward 2. Totals: 7 9-14 27.
Wyoming East
Hannah Blankenship 4, Madison Clark 15, Kayley Bane 8, Colleen Lookabill 5, Cadee Blackburn 13, Alivia Monroe 8, Abby Russell 12, Laken Toler 2. Totals: 27 9-12 65.
3-pointers – SC: 2 (Pivont); 4 (Clark, Bane, Lookabill, Blackburn).