Gallery by Heather Belcher
Charleston – There were times this season when it was doubtful Wyoming East guard Abby Russell would make it to the end of the year with a knee injury hampering her.
She was shutdown on separate occasions in an effort to preserve her for a title run, playing just six minutes in the Lady Warriors’ semifinal win against Petersburg.
The payoff was worth it.
In her final game Russell scored 13 points, steadying the Lady Warriors as they claimed the Class AA state championship Saturday evening in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center with a 57-41 win over No. 1 Summers County.
Russell played well in a complementary role to fellow all-stater Maddie Clark who finished with a game-high 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting. It proved necessary after East’s leading scorer Cadee Blackburn was held to just four points after scoring 30 the previous night.
“This was my last game I’ll ever play,” Russell said. “From regionals on this could be my last game that I ever play so I didn’t want to lose.”
Clark was her usual self, driving the charge Saturday evening but the co-stars were different. In addition to Russell’s contributions, senior Colleen Lookabill poured in 12 points and eight rebounds, rounding out the trio of double-digit scorers for East.
“We always had faith in Colleen shooting,” East head coach Angie Bonisnegna said. “She was slow to come around to us but she picked the perfect day to have belief in herself. She stepped up for us.”
It was the same song and dance for the Lady Warriors as it had been all week. Swarming the ball they forced five Summers turnovers in the first five minutes, jumping out to an 11-0 lead with five points from Clark, a 3 from Russell and a steal and layup from Lookabill highlighting the run. Overwhelmed, the Lady Bobcats righted the ship, flipping the momentum.
A pull-up 3 from Sullivan Pivont was followed by another trey from Avery Lilly after she drew an offensive foul. A layup from Pivont and a jumper from Gracie Harvey cut the deficit to two at 12-10 with 36 seconds left in the opening frame.
But as they would do all night, the Lady Warriors responded with a counterpunch. Russell landed the first one with a 3 that made it 15-10 after a quarter. The trey set off a frantic sequence of events in which Pivont answered early in the second but comfortable with that pace, East responded with a three-point play from Abi Baker and a pair of 3s from Clark and Russell that pushed the advantage back to 11 at 28-17.
“They shot well at the beginning of the basketball game and I thought they dictated the basketball game early,” Summers coach Chad Meador said. “We just never could quite catch up. I think we might’ve been down 8-0 or 10-0 and we battled back. Eventually you have to stop battling back and you have to get ahead against a good team like that. But hats off to them. They have some players that have overcome adversity, especially Abby Russell. I’m glad to see her on all-tournament team. Just a fine young lady who’s had a great career.”
East’s advantage held at 35-24 at the break and the Lady Warriors threatened to pull away when Lookabill nailed a 3 and Clark found Bane for a layup to push the advantage to 16 early in the half. But Summers’ last true gasp followed when a 7-0 run, featuring another Pivont 3, slashed the deficit to nine. Russell again had the answer with a jumper that gave East a 44-33 advantage heading into the final frame.
The lead never fell below double digits afterwards.
“We’ve gotten behind a few times but not quite 10 or 12 points,” Meador said. “That’s a little bit much for us. Eight or 10, we usually can come back from that but you can’t trade buckets against Wyoming East. You’ve got to get stops and limit second-chance points. There was a stretch there where they grabbed every offensive rebound.”
With the win this year’s juniors (Clark, Charleigh Price and Kim Blankenship) and seniors (Lookabill, Russell, Bane and Laken Toler) become the first classes in program history to win two state championships in their career, bringing East’s record in title games to 3-3 since 2016.
“More than you can imagine,” Lookabill said when asked what the title meant. “It doesn’t seem like it would be the biggest thing but when you work and you see all the hard work that we’ve done through all the years – we’re in the gym every day. We’re there for each other and we do things you don’t see every day on the court from the outside. To win this and say goodbye to the sport I’ve played since I was a little kid, it felt good.”
“It’s unbelievable for me because I wasn’t supposed to even finish out the season,” Russell added.
The loss brings an emotional end to a stellar season for Summers County, as it beat Wyoming East in the sectional championship before handing No. 2 Mingo Central a season-ending loss in the Region 3 co-final.
It resulted in Summers’ first title game appearance since 2011.
“I never thought I’d be sitting here at the podium as a head coach ever,” Meador laughed. “It’s been a great six years with this program. I always considered myself a career assistant. When coach (Wayne) Ryan stepped down, I decided to help Sarah Blevins for a year. She decided to move on to North Carolina and start a family. I had a couple girls coming up and said, ‘Maybe I can do this.’ We’ve been to the state tournament five out of the six years.”
Pivont and Liv Meador, both seniors, led Summers with 15 and 12 points, respectively, in their final game.
Summers finishes its season with a 21-4 record while Wyoming East caps off it’s title campaign with a 23-5 mark and a 3-1 record against Summers.
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Haleigh McGoskey (Ravenswood), Liv Meador (Summers), Molly Messer (Charleston Catholic), Braylee Corbin (Petersburg), Sullivan Pivont (Summers), Abby Russell (East), Maddie Clark (East), Gracie Harvey (Summers) and Cadee Blackburn (East) made the Class AA all-tournament team.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
