Gallery by Tina Laney
The Wyoming East girls basketball team may not be overly familiar with William Shakespeare.
However, the words of the famous English playwright were on full display Friday night inside the War Zone.
“Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.”
As will likely be the case all season, the two-time defending Class AA state champions had to weather a fierce battle against PikeView (1-1) to escape with a 51-48 win in its season opener.
“I think we will get everybody’s best shot, every night,” Wyoming East head coach Ryan Davidson said. “We have been telling them that in practice and all the way up to now. I don’t think you believe it until you are in it. The one good thing about this game is we have a lot of good film to look at and we will get there.”
The Warriors started the game on fire. A nice roll to the basket from Gabby Cameron ignited a 13-2 start and an 18-9 lead after one quarter.
Late in the second quarter, the lead went back to 11 points on a Panther turnover. Kenna Price gathered the ball and it pitched ahead to Cadee Blackburn for two of her game-high 20 points.
When the halftime horn sounded, East led by seven points, but had missed its crucial window of opportunity to break open the game with missed foul shots and untimely fouls.
“I thought there were two times in the game where we could have really separated the game,” Davidson said. “Then we would foul four or five times in a row and send them to the foul line where the game would stop.”
The visitors also struggled to take advantage of key moments, but did survive four empty trips to open the second half, cutting the lead to three points with 3:30 left in the third period.
Trailing by nine, senior Haley Justice scored on back-to-back possessions before Riley Meadows cashed in on a run-out.
Justice ended the night with a team-high 18 points and gave the Warriors fits in the paint.
“She was huge for us,” PikeView head coach Tony Mallamaci said. “When we started putting the ball down low, she was putting the ball in the basket.”
A pair of buckets from Abi Baker steadied the ship for the Warriors who led 42-34 with eight minutes to play.
The lead was still eight halfway through the final period, but Wyoming East managed just three more points the rest of the way.
“We have had two scrimmages and a real game and tonight was the best we looked defensively,” Mallamaci said. “I hope we build on that. We have to box out better and rebound better, but for the most part we kept them in front of us.”
Two strong plays from Justice helped get the game back to within four points before a pair of free throws trimmed the Wyoming East lead to two with just over a minute to play.
Clinging to a 49-47 advantage, Baker came up with a huge steal that ended in a layup from Blackburn with 49 ticks on the clock.
The Panthers could only manage one made free throw down the stretch, hurting themselves with some costly turnovers.
“We just turned the ball over, I don’t know how many times. That was a winnable ball game against one of the best teams in the state. We just shot ourselves in the foot,” Mallamaci said. “Throwing passes that weren’t going to get there and bobbling balls out of bounds, but those things are fixable. That part encourages me for the remainder of the season, knowing we can get where we want to get. We just have to fix those fundamental mistakes, but that is what practice is for.”
Prior to coaching PikeView, Mallamaci was the head man for the Bluefield girls team, so he was very familiar with the difficulties of playing inside the War Zone.
“I used to come down here with some good teams in the past and get waxed,” Mallamaci said. “It hurts to lose and I don’t believe in moral victories, but I feel encouraged. This is a game we can build on.”
While he was happy with the win, Davidson does see some areas of concern for his team, even in the early stages of the season.
“We just didn’t do the little things right,” Davidson said. “Our lack of leadership showed tonight. I have been trying to find someone that will step up and try to take control of things, even in practice. Everybody is looking for somebody. Then it is too easy to blame foul-calling and other stuff, instead of just playing.”
“We have had a leader here before that stopped it,” Davidson continued. “They don’t know how to be a leader really and they are learning. It will be a process. This may be something that is up or down for a month or so. We weren’t pressuring the ball and they were getting points. That is just not who we are.”
Meadows ended the night with 15 points and Baker had 12 for East.
PV: 9 18 7 14 – 48
WE: 18 16 8 9 – 51
PikeView
Haley Justice 18, Riley Meadows 15, Jocelyn Hall 1, Karis Trump 6, Jaelynn Shrewsbury 6, Tylar Burks 2. Totals: 14 18-30 48.
Wyoming East
Cadee Blackburn 20, Alivia Monroe 2, Gabby Cameron 6, Kyndal Lusk 8, Abi Baker 12, Rylee Brown 3. Totals 20 8-17 51.
3-pointers – PV: 2 (Trump 2); WE: 3 (Blackburn, Lusk, Brown)
