Gallery by Heather Belcher
At times during the regular season, the schedule can work against teams.
Thursday night inside the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center the schedule was not favorable for PikeView.
Playing for the third straight day, the Panthers had the daunting task of trying to take down Class AAAA Beckley on its home floor.
As expected, the Flying Eagles were too much for the Panthers at the famed Armory in the New River CTC Tournament.
Never trailing in the game, Beckley started fast and overwhelmed PikeView 66-26.
“In this type of game, we try to see what everybody can do. I am just glad we had a chance to do that tonight,” Beckley head coach Ron Kidd said. “The way our schedule is, you don’t always get a chance to do that. PikeView is going to be pretty good. They are big, they have size and they are aggressive. It was just our night tonight.”
Getting his first start of the season, sophomore Kellen Heffernan made the most of his opportunity by scoring eight points in the first four minutes to ignite Beckley on a 16-2 run.
“We had some guys that were kind of injured two days before this game. So, we just decided to start him,” Kidd explained.
Heffernan nailed a 3-ball to open the game and 22 seconds later, Coby Dillon hammered home the first of his two long balls in the quarter for a 6-0 lead.
Jaylon Walton went old school for his 3-point play before Nathan Riffe scored for PikeView to break the Flying Eagle burst.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, it was only a small speed bump for the high-octane Beckley squad.
Heffernan nailed his second 3-ball and followed it up with a layup at the 4:42 mark. A quick steal and slick move through the lane from Elijah Redfern capped the 16-2 start.
“(Heffernan) can shoot the basketball and what I like about him is he runs the floor and gets some layups for us too,” Kidd said. “He showed that he can play and should be getting minutes. What you are looking for is who is going to earn their minutes.”
After Riffe dropped one in from behind the arc, Beckley went at it again running off 11 straight for a 22-point bulge.
Dillon drilled a 3-pointer to start the streak before Walton converted a pair of free throws. Redfern’s stick was followed by a steal and a layup from Zyon Hawthorne with 1:17 to play in the quarter.
A score off an offensive rebound from Drew Fitzwater capped the run with 17 seconds left on the clock.
The 27-7 lead after one quarter was 36-11 at the break and the Flying Eagles were not challenged in the second half.
After scoring 27 points in the opening quarter, Beckley only managed 17 over the next two seeing some good chances to score go by the wayside.
“I thought defensively that we looked pretty good, but offensively we (missed some) opportunities. We threw the ball away when we had easy layups. All we had to do was make the right pass and the easy pass,” Kidd said. “I guess our kids got a little excited. It was like a hot potato at times. I still felt like they kept their composure and tried to do what we wanted them to do.”
Redfern led the Flying Eagles with 17 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals. Dillon and Walton added nine points each. Dillon also had four assists and two steals.
Heffernan finished with eight and Fitzwater scored seven. Braydon Hawthorne was a terror inside again for Beckley with a game-high eight rebounds and four blocks.
Riffe led the Panthers with 13 points on the night.
PikeView (3-6) travels to Summers County Tuesday, while Beckley plays Huntington Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. on the final day of the New River CTC Tournament.
