Gallery by Karen Akers
Saturday afternoon at Shady Spring High School, the girls all-star game returned to the Scott Brown Classic for the first time since 2011.
Once again, the young ladies proved if they are given a chance, they know how to put on a show.
Consisting of seniors from Class AAA, AA and A, the Chick-fil-A all-star team rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat the Jan Care all-stars, 77-69.
The Jan Care squad was a collection of Class AAAA senior standouts from around the Mountain State.
“Having fun is what it is all about. I also get to coach my girls one more time along with the best players throughout the state,” PikeView head coach Tracy Raban, who also led the Chick-fil-A squad, said. “These kids have played against each other and now they get to come together and play. We struggled shooting that first half, but we told them the shots were going to fall and keep shooting them. They did and that is why we were able to separate.”
Playing two 20-minute halves, the girls from the smaller schools let it be known early that they came ready to play.
PikeView’s Hannah Perdue knocked down a 3-pointer to open the game before Wyoming East standout Hannah Blankenship scored eight straight points for an 11-5 lead.
As the game reached the midway point of the opening half, the big school all-stars took control of the contest.
Princeton’s Lauren Parrish converted an old school 3-point play at the 11:23 mark to give Jan Care its first lead of the ballgame.
A hard drive from Oak Hill’s Samiah Lynch ended in an assist to Woodrow Wilson’s Olivia Ziolkowski for a 21-18 advantage.
For the next seven minutes the game went back and forth before a 10-0 run from Jan Care keyed the 43-33 lead at the break.
Greenbrier East standout Daisha Summers shined during the run scoring eight points and assisting on a bucket from Lynch.
Chick-fil-A started quick to open the second half when Summers County’s Maggie Stover scored on a pick-and-roll with Perdue.
Perdue followed with a bucket and Brown drilled one of her three long balls in the game to cut the deficit to 43-40.
“Hannah and Anyah along with the (Abbie) Myers kid from Logan just seemed to feed off of each other. It was fun to see them do it together one last time,” Raban said.
With 12:10 to play in the game, another strong drive from Summers put Jan Care up 56-49, but an 11-0 run by the Chik-fil-A squad changed the game.
Gilmer County’s Malaysia Morgan’s bucket started the turnaround which included a put back from Stover and seven points from Perdue.
Five points from Brown later in the half along with a triple from Gilmer County’s Trinity Bancroft pushed the lead to double digits for the first time with 6:18 to play.
Ziolkowski, who scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, scored four straight to momentarily stem the tide, but four points from Stover restored the 10-point lead.
Brown finished the game with 18 points and seven rebounds and was named the Most Valuable Player.
“Honestly this is unbelievable. This day was perfect. I didn’t expect to go out like this,” Brown said. “I have never received something like this in my whole life.”
Perdue finished with 16 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had four steals. Morgan collected 11 rebounds and scored eight points, while Bancroft scored 10.
Bancroft also won the 3-point shootout prior to the game.
Summers scored 13 points and had eight rebounds for Jan Care, while Talayah Boxley from Capital scored 10 points and had 12 rebounds.
“It was fun to coach. I have coached against a lot of those kids over their high school careers and some for the first time,” Jan Care and George Washington head coach Jamie LaMaster said. They are all great kids and they competed and played really hard. This was a great environment and it is one of the best run tournaments that I have been to in a long time.”
