Gallery by Tina Laney
Gardner – Wins for the PikeView boys basketball team against Mercer County nemesis Bluefield have been few and far between.
Friday night when the two team clashed, the Beavers were riding a 20-game win streak, but entered the contest with a young, inexperienced team, wrecked by graduation.
Ripe for the picking, the Panthers cashed in on one of their best opportunities to knock off Bluefield in several years, but it wasn’t easy. Erasing an 11-point second-half deficit, PikeView pushed the game to overtime and scratched out a 62-59 win.
“It feels good,” PikeView head coach Les Farmer said. “It’s the first time in I think eight years that we knocked off Bluefield. I think it was Seth Meadows’ junior year, so it has been a while.”
Snapping the losing streak looked improbable for three quarters before a four-minute drought to open the final period pulled both teams even.
For the first 24 minutes, the visitors had trailed just once at 19-18 and led by as many as 11 points with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
With his team trailing 45-38 with eight minutes to play, freshman Zayden Farmer drilled a 3-ball at the 6:52 mark of the final period which jump started a 10-0 run for as three-point advantage.
Bluefield then evened the score at 48-apiece on three free throws from Jase Smith before Ryan Robinette scored inside on assist from Drew Damewood.
Jack Hurt answered for the Beavers with his fifth 3-pointer of the contest, but the lead was brief, flipping back to the Panthers on two charity tosses from Damewood.
A free throw from Amari Helm and a bucket from Devin Totten put Bluefield back on top, 54-52 with one minutes to play in regulation.
Trailing 54-52, PikeView put the ball in the hands of junior guard Elijah Hall who scored on a drive, tying the game at 54-54.
Bluefield could not convert on the final possession and the game went to overtime.
In the final quarter, PikeView held the Beavers to nine points and allowed only five in the overtime period.
“Since day one, we have been working on man-to-man (defense). We have never been a good man-to-man team. Right now I think we have the repertoire to play man,” Farmer said. “(Bluefield) was getting comfortable in our zone. I think when we went to man, it kind of surprised them a little bit and got them out of their flow. Our help-side was great tonight. They played for each other.”
The home team took the early lead in the extra session on another strong take to the rim by Hall and never trailed in the overtime period.
Smith scored in the paint to tie the game for the final time before Damewood exploded to the rack, putting PikeView back on top with 1:40 to play.
“We are a small team and we are all guards, but these guys really work. Drew is everything you want as a coach. He is a hustler, he will take charges and dive on loose balls,” Farmer said. “He stepped up there at the end and hit some foul shots. Same thing at Oak Hill the other night. He hit foul shots down the stretch. Zayden Farmer is a freshman that stepped up huge for us in the fourth quarter and in overtime. He is a true point guard and we needed him down the stretch.”
Bluefield had some solid looks in the closing minutes, but could not convert at the crucial points of the overtime period.
“They showed a lot of effort. We are still really, really green. We don’t have a lot of stuff in and we are still trying to figure out what type of team that we are,” first year Bluefield head coach Tony Webster said. “We are just young, but we knew that coming in. We lost six seniors. The effort was there and they did everything that we asked. We just came up a little short.”
Clinging to the two-point lead, the Panthers once again turned to Hall who took a pass at the foul line, spun quickly to the basket for his 21st point of the game and a crucial four-point advantage. A Damewood free throw moved the lead to five points, but Bluefield refused to go away.
Another 3-pointer from Hurt, who had 18 points on the night, trimmed the lead back to two points with eight ticks left on the clock.
Damewood split a pair of free-throws, but Bluefield’s final attempt missed the mark just before the buzzer.
Friday’s win for the Panthers comes on the heels of a win over Oak Hill Tuesday night.
“The group of seniors that I have right now lost one game when they were in eighth grade in middle school. They went 29-1 in the year of Covid. I told them all that needed to change at PikeView High School is the mindset,” Farmer said. “Now I have them believing. That is good as a coach. They are playing for me. They are playing for each other and that is all that you want. We are a religious team and we are praying like crazy. We give the thanks to God. Without him, we could not have done anything we did tonight.”
While it wasn’t the outcome that he wanted, Webster feels the best days are ahead for his young squad.
“We shot the ball pretty well, but our defense is (not) where it needs to be,” Webster said. “We didn’t turn them over like I thought. They only had eight turnovers in the first half. The way we want to play, we have to double that. We are the type of team that wants to get up and down the floor and turn teams over. This is our first game and I have said it before, we are not going to be playing good ball in December. We are just too young. I can live with the effort. Our kids played hard. We will watch film and get ready for the nest one.”
B: 16 13 16 9 5 – 59
PV: 11 11 16 16 8 – 62
Bluefield
Davion Hickman 3, Amari Helm 1, Jeffrey King 4, Jack Hurt 18, Ricky Dunford 5, Devin Totten 9, Jase Smith 15, Greyson Parris 4. Totals: 19 10-16-59.
PikeView
Drew Damewood 12, Elijah Hall 21, Bryson Bailey 11, Nate Vestal 6, Ryan Robinette 7, Zayden Farmer 5. Totals: 20 17-27 62
