Gallery by Heather Belcher
Charleston – Two years ago in her first state tournament game, Wyoming East senior Abby Russell air-balled her first 3-point attempt.
Safe to say she doesn’t think about it much.
Russell went 3 for 3 from beyond the arc to open Wednesday’s game as No. 2 Wyoming East beat No. 7 Ravenswood 67-37 at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
With the win the Lady Warriors advance to Friday evening’s Class AA semifinal where they’ll face No. 6 Petersburg.
The quick 3s from Russell all came within the first 2:19 of the game, helping East avoid another slow start.
“Since we lost to Summers County (in the sectional championship) I’ve been shooting on the shooting machine at least an hour after practice, at least an hour!” Russell smiled. “At practice I’ve been shooting alright and at Chapmanville I shot good (6 of 9) and I was like I’m feeling it and hit three. After that I stopped making them but it helped.”
The Lady Warriors’ performance Wednesday was reminiscent of those from the 2021 championship team from the jump, as they took a 23-10 lead after a quarter with defense and precision passing in transition leading the way.
“I think Abby hitting a couple of 3s got us motivated and got us some good positive energy,” East head coach Angie Boninsegna said. “Our defense picked up really well and they really hit each other in our transition and our defense overall played full court a lot and we dictated the speed of the game. We played the speed of the game that we liked and I think that helped us.”
All nine of their first-quarter field goals were assisted on with junior Maddie Clark leading the way, compiling 12 assists on the afternoon, six of which came in the first quarter. She had her fingerprints all over the game, producing a double-double with 15 points, 12 assists and 8 steals.
She was a menace on the break for the Lady Warriors, throwing ahead to open teammates and collapsing or drawing defenders to create opportunities for others. In total the Lady Warriors scored 30 fast break points and 46 total in the paint with Clark engineering the charge.
“I just kind of saw open people and I was just distributing the ball,” Clark said. “I knew they could hit their shots so I was just hitting the open person.”
Hadleigh McGoskey put the Devilettes on the board with the first two of her game-high 23 points, eventually helping cut the deficit to 12-8.
But Clark picked apart the Ravenswood defense, finding Kayley Bane on a pair of 3-point play opportunities, the latter of which she converted. When the dust settled East held a 23-10 advantage after a quarter but Ravenswood kept pace throughout the second, outscoring East 11-10 with nine of those points coming from McGoskey.
Coming out of the half East led 33-21 and then its leading scorer, Cadee Blackburn, joined the party. She scored East’s first eight points of the second half and 12 total in the quarter shooting 6 of 8 from the field in the frame. She credited the explosion to a state tournament delicacy – Zul’s.
“My frozen strawberry lemonade,” Blackburn said when asked what got her going at the half. “I got it before the game but it sat (in the locker room) the whole first half. That’s why I only had two points.”
“I looked over and she was just slurping,” Clark added.
Blackburn’s outburst helped East expand the gap, sending her team to the Class AA semis for the fifth time in six years.
For Ravenswood, the East defense was a mystery it couldn’t solve. The Devilettes turned the ball over 16 times and shot just 23.3 percent from the field. East added 11 steals for good measure with Clark coming away with eight of them.
“It’s very hard to simulate that in practice,” Ravenswood head coach Cara Williams said. “We don’t have the depth that they have and that hurt us. A few little injuries and some people not feeling their best today. Not making excuses but turnovers – live-ball turnovers, we knew that was going to be an issue because we knew they love to get out and run and quick shots. We kind of got suckered into taking quick shots, especially late and feeling like we needed to get the ball up and make a run. But they make their layups and that was the difference in the game.”
Standing in the way of East’s fifth Class AA championship game appearance in six seasons is a Petersburg program the Lady Warriors faced two years ago on their title run. East won that game 75-44 with Russell scoring 18 and Clark, a freshman at the time, pitching in 15.
“We watched their whole game in the room,” Clark said of Petersburg’s Wednesday morning win over St. Marys. “I brought my iPad. I had it on the bed and we were watching it. They look fast, they look bigger than we are and they can shoot but I think we can handle it.”
“We have a lot of respect for their program,” Boninsegna added. “They’ve been here a lot and they’ll be a challenge for us. They’re a little bit bigger than us but all year these kids, the teams we’ve faced we’ve been overall smaller than them but we have to continue to concentrate on what we do well and hopefully that will come out on Friday.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.coma and follow on Twitter @tjack94
