Gallery by Tina Laney
Charleston – PikeView wasn’t willing to concede shots in the paint Tuesday morning.
So Nitro happily took the ones available behind the arc and nailed them, opening up the rest of the floor.
The No. 3-seeded Wildcats went 6 of 12 from behind the arc in the opening half of a Class AAA state quarterfinal game, ending PikeView’s season with a 51-32 victory in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The extra points from those 3-point attempts proved fatal as PikeView’s offense failed to find the bottom of the net for majority of the morning.
“Just looking quickly here at the stats it looks like we shot 27 percent for the game and when you get to this level, that’s not going to get it done,” PikeView head coach Tracy Raban said. “Give credit to Nitro’s defense. I mean, we knew they were going to pressure us and knew Cat (Farmer) was going to have a tough morning. But I felt for the most part she did all she could do but 27 percent is not gonna get it done and with 21 turnovers on top of that, to me, that’s the ballgame. That’s the difference in the game.”
The Panthers were in good shape through the first eight minutes, falling behind just 10-9 after a quarter but their offensive struggles glared through the opening half of the second quarter as they went scoreless for the first 4:05 of the frame.
That allowed Nitro to heat up with Natalie Smith becoming the Wildcats’ supernova. She scored first in the second quarter, nailing a step-back 3 two minutes into the frame and followed later with a free throw. Ava Edwards joined the party with a long ball and Smith added another jumper to cap a 10-0 run.
PikeView found its bearings getting back to back jumpers form Cat Farmer and Haley Justice to fall but Nitro’s assault form deep continued with Hailey Newsome nailing consecutive 3-point attempts, sending the Wildcats to the locker room with a 25-15 advantage.
“That’s big for a group of girls, other than Ava, that have never stepped foot on this court to knock down some big shots from the outside,” Nitro head coach Pat Jones said. “Before the game started, I told them we wanted to start by building some confidence and work our way to the outside but they started knocking them down and I certainly wasn’t going to tell them to stop shooting and it helped that Natalie was inside getting the rebounds on the misses and putting them back in the basket.”
PikeView’s defense remained steady in the second half, limiting Nitro to just five points in the third quarter but its offense went MIA again. It took the Panthers nearly four-and-a-half minutes to score in the third quarter and nearly six minutes for them to convert on their first field goal attempt.
“We’ve kind of struggled with that all year,” Raban said. “We’ve had to stay on the offensive end the floor. It’s like we have to work double as hard on defense. That’s been our story this season. And unfortunately when you get to this level it’s hard to battle out of that. And when you go stale like that, for that long, against a solid basketball team it’s hard to overcome at this level.”
With defense providing support, a 6-0 run at the end of the third quarter was enough to energize PikeView which trialed 30-23 heading into the fourth. The effort on the defensive end and a short rotation eventually caught up to the Panthers.
Smith opened the final frame with a personal 5-0 run, quelled momentarily by a pair of Riley Meadows free throws. A 10-1 Nitro run over the next four minutes drove the nail in the coffin, putting the Wildcats up 45-26 with 2:26 to play.
“I think we had the momentum and we always believe we’re not going to quit,” Raban said. “We don’t care what the score is, we’re gonna keep battling. Honestly, I think their depth and just being able to pressure us – when you’re only playing six – I just think their depth got to us and you know, we got exhausted. Brooke (Craft) looked at me several times, like ‘Coach, I need a break,’ and I’m like, ‘Sorry!’ I tried to use the timeouts as I could. I just think their depth and the continuous pressure that we got throughout the game just got to us in the third and fourth quarter.”
Smith led all scorers with 22 points and 19 rebounds while Haley Justice pace the Panthers with 10 points. Craft finished with 11 rebounds for the Panther sin the loss.
Nitro will play the winner of Wayne-Keyser on Thursday at 11:15 a.m. for a spot in the Class AAA title game.
