Welcome to The Deep Post, a column/notebook recapping the week past and ahead. This week unpacks the girls state tournament.
This installation is a bit longer, so I’ve added a table of contents to help.
- Wyoming East’s Riveting Comeback
- Pat Jones’ Monologue
- The Class AA Tournament MVP DebacleÂ
- Quotes of the Week
- The Final Buzzer
Wyoming East’s Riveting Comeback
There’s A LOT to unpack from Wyoming East’s fourth state championship run. I’ll start with the anecdotes, then dive deep into the anatomy of the historic and dramatic title win.
- Wyoming East senior Maddie Clark is now the most accomplished athlete in school history. She’s the only one to ever win three state championships, and earn two first-team all-state selections with another likely to come when the teams are released after the boys state tournament.
- Wyoming East now moves to 4-3 in Class AA championship games after starting 1-2.
- Wyoming East has forced 24, 22, 10 and 19 turnovers (18.7 per game) in its four title game victories. In the losses it’s forced 12, 10 and eight (10 per game).
- This year’s team finished with a 23-2 record tying the program-best mark set by the 2016 title squad.
- It’s the first time since the boys won the ’07 and ’08 titles that any team in school history has won back-to-back championships.
Now for the game itself.
More than any other title the program has won, this one required all hands on deck as the final four minutes of the fourth quarter had everyone’s fingerprints on it. Kyndal Lusk had the offensive rebound that led to Cadee Blackburn’s game-changing 3, stole two passes in the final 1:14 and drew the offensive foul that gave East the ball with the game tied and under 40 seconds to play. Alivia Monroe made the heads up assist on the game-winning bucket. Abi Baker stole two passes and scored the tying and winning buckets. Maddie Clark stole a pass, hit Blackburn for a pair of fast break layups and cemented the game with a pair of free throws. Cadee Blackburn went on a personal 9-0 run, grabbed the offensive board that led to Baker’s tying bucket and stole the ball after her winning bucket.
It took everyone. But their impacts weren’t limited to the final four minutes of the season.
***
When Alivia Monroe was asked about competing in the state championship following East’s Friday semifinal win against Ravenswood, she was candid.
“I’ve never played in a state championship game so I don’t know,” Monroe said.
It drew laughter from the media, her coach and teammates.
“I’m just being honest.”
Her head coach Ryan Davidson elaborated.
“I’ll tell you one thing, and I’ll speak to what Alivia is talking about,” Davidson said. “At the beginning of the season, her and Gabby (Cameron) and Charleigh Price, looked at me and said, ‘We’ve won state championships, but we want to win a state championship.’ And so they understood the significance of what they had to take on this year. They were on the team and played a huge part of what we did. But now they’re the ones out there with the lights shining on them. So I think they’ve answered that bell so far. Now we got a lot of work to do. But I’m really proud of what they’ve done.”
Monroe in particular was a standout.
The program should have a trophy that it gives out to a player that finds their confidence in the title game or state tournament each year. I’ve seen Monroe’s performance before.
It was Hannah Blankenship in the 2021 title game against Parkersburg Catholic. It was Colleen Lookabill in the 2023 title game against Summers County.
Monroe finished with eight points and six rebounds but she helped an East offense that struggled throughout the night in the half court setting. The pick and roll and pick and pop plays between her and Clark were money and that’s the exact play that led to Baker’s game-winning layup. A defender fell on the screen, forcing the post defender to come out and contest an open Monroe. When she saw that, she hit a flashing Baker for one of the biggest buckets in tournament history. Her play in the two-man game all tournament provided East with one counter after another and forced that breakdown. Against Charleston Catholic her layups off the roll action showed how dangerous she is getting downhill. Teams then allowed her to shoot and in the title game six of her eight points came on jumpers. Having excelled in the mid-range game all evening, Williamstown had to respect it when she had an open look with the game on the line. Then she made the extra pass getting a great shot instead of a good one.
But even earlier in the game Monroe was a massive part of Davidson’s plan on offense. For the first time all year he used her as the offensive initiator outside of the top of the key. It was a genius move to help give East an early advantage. Baker and Clark are difficult to stop once they win on their first step. Monroe, playing with the four-guard lineup of Baker, Lusk, Blackburn and Clark, was guarded by Williamstown’s 6-foot-2 center Faith Pickens. Using Monroe as the initiator pulled Pickens out of the paint and created traffic for Baker and Clark’s defenders. Unable to switch in time it led to open layups on dives for Clark.
Monroe credited her unique skillet while Davidson expanded on where the idea came from.
“Can I answer this one?” Monroe asked when the question was posed about the strategy. “I’ve said since the beginning of the year that I’m a point guard in a post body and I stand by that. You should see me out there handling the ball. I’m pretty good.”
“So now we have to figure out how to transition into Alivia playing the one next year,” Davidson smirked. “No, honestly, I would like to think that we’re a group – well, I don’t want to think, I know we’re a group that learns from other teams and things they do to us. I am surrounded by really, really good people. (Assistant coaches) Austin Canada, Laken Toler, I couldn’t ask for better people. Summers County did that to us at Summers County. They allowed their big girl (Gracie Harvey) to bring the ball up the floor. So we were thinking about it as, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can bring (Pickens) away from the rim.’ And it worked. So you know sometimes it’s not an original thought. It’s just learning from other people and learning from each play. So I’ll give (Summers County head coach) Rick Blevins credit for that one.”
Defensively I thought Monroe played well too, using her strength to stick with Pickens. Monroe, along with center Gabby Cameron, gave the all-stater fits, holding her to 3 of 12 shooting with most of those looks coming within five feet of the rim. Three of those shots were blocked by those two. They were always going to be the key to slowing down either Williamstown or Wheeling Central, both of which featured outstanding post players.
Monroe’s three-game run in Charleston could be the springboard for an all-state season if she stays healthy and continues to work. At worst she can finally say she played in and won a state championship.
***
You can’t talk about East’s win without discussing the tournament run Abi Baker had. Davidson wasn’t surprised. She flashed in last year’s tournament as a freshman and came into her own this year but the state tournament was her coming out party.
But Davidson’s never been surprised.
Following the 2021 title victory I asked him about the feeder programs and the outlook of the girls program at East.
He brought up a few names but was the highest on Baker and her ceiling.
Baker’s awareness and athleticism were on display on the tying and winning shots but she found a way to manifest a Davidson message to his team – value each possession. Baker finished the state tournament with 10 offensive rebounds and 12 steals. That means she either generated or extended 22 total possessions which mattered as East won its quarterfinal game by five points and the title game by four. In those games she generated or extended 16 possessions.
In the title game East lost 34-24 on the glass and made 10 fewer free throws despite attempting as many (16) as Williamstown. Davidson explained that if you’re going to lose those categories the way his team did, they needed to value possessions and generate more somehow, someway. Baker gave her team five extra ones with steals and extended two more on the offensive glass.
She was on my all-tournament ballot. Her scoring statistics may not have popped off the page but anybody who watched the games for three days knows she was one of the eight best players in double-A over that stretch.
She led all double-A players with 12 steals and finished tied for second amongst all classes in the category. She was a player East’s coaching staff looked at as a huge advantage.
When I stopped by East last Saturday to grab material for a story, Davidson and assistant Austin Canada discussed how they had scouted their potential matchups in the state tournament. They liked their matchup with Williamstown because they felt like they could use Baker in pressure packages to disrupt Williamstown’s 5-foot-1 point guard Quinn Bunch the way they did Mingo Central’s Addie Smith in the regional.
They used traps and double teams to pick apart Williamstown. Baker’s length and athleticism as a state meet qualifying hurdler contributed to the run.
***
When the Lady Warriors walked through the backdoors of the Charleston Coliseum Saturday night around 6 p.m., they were mostly stone faced with a couple of smiles.
Then there was Cadee Blackburn near the back of the line blasting Drake’s “Back to Back” on her bluetooth boombox.
When I saw that, I felt like she was going to shake her past title performances. And she did, scoring 14 points in the second half.
In East’s previous two title games she scored six total points in 48 minutes, though I don’t believe the four she scored last year told the story of how she played. She strayed from forcing shots and got the ball to the players who were on in that game.
I’m not sure there’s a more frustrating player to play across from than Blackburn. She jaws with you all game and makes sure you don’t forget when she makes a play. She’s the type of player you love her edge if she’s on your side but hate it if you’re playing against her. When she hits the first shot and gets hot, you’re cooked.
She brings a different attitude to the program and it was nice to see her keep carry on the East tradition of singing and blasting music that’s become synonymous with the program’s title runs.
***
The scene as the final buzzer sounded told the story of Maddie Clark’s career and just how far she had come. As a freshman in 2021 she had the ball on the final possession and dribbled the clock out before slamming it into the court and dogpiling Skylar Davidson in her final high school game.
This year she nailed the cementing free throws for the final points of the game, season and her high school career. It was an amusing contrast from her freshman year where she air-balled free throws but also displayed how much she’s improved as a player.
When the clock expired it was her moment. She dropped from a crouch to the floor just inside half court as her teammates dogpiled her the way she did Davidson three years ago.
It was a fitting end for the school’s most accomplished athlete.
***
Talking to Davidson in the aftermath, he said he’s been asked about the timeout he took with 4.1 seconds left after Blackburn stole the ball following Baker’s game-winning layup.
I’m not sure why there are questions about it. Blackburn had to dive on the floor to secure the ball. The timeout allowed East to gain the possession, compose itself in an emotional situation and had Williamstown forced a jump ball it had the possession arrow and would’ve had a chance to win the game on a heave.
The timeout allowed Davidson two things – it let his team know exactly where to go with the inbounds pass and who to get at the foul line. He could run through all of the situational keys to get everyone on the same page with a two-point lead and four seconds to go. There was the argument that it stopped the clock for Williamstown but in that situation, I’d take that risk.
It’s worth noting East had one more timeout if it couldn’t get the ball in.
I thought it was a masterful job by Davidson and his staff who managed the game perfectly. Two years ago when the Shady Spring boys lost the Class AAA title game on a buzzer beater, head coach Ronnie Olson admitted his regret in not calling a timeout to set up his defense, especially when he was notorious for doing so.
“It’s my fault because I should have called a timeout,” Olson said after that loss. “Absolutely. I don’t know if the officials, they barely recognized me all game I don’t know if they would’ve recognized me at the end … But I take the blame for losing the game because I should’ve took a timeout when we scored a bucket and set our defense and that’s on me. Guys battled and they fought and I didn’t call the timeout. We decided to go early and Braden took it. He took what he wanted. He won the game and I should’ve took a timeout and set the defense and I didn’t.”
This game reminded me a lot of that 2022 Shady-Fairmont Senior title game. The Tigers trailed that one by seven points with 2:42 to go and took the lead on a layup with 10 seconds to go. They couldn’t survive that final 10 seconds while East had to survive 14.
The situations differed slightly as Williamstown was without a timeout and overwhelmed but regardless, Davidson left nothing to chance.
Great call, coach.
***
I thought Davidson’s philosophies all manifested Saturday and it in part led to Williamtown’s wear down. I wrote last week about the path the double-A champion had to take, winning across three consecutive days. I felt the depth East built favored it. What also favored it? The way it plays defense.
In years past the Lady Warriors might press teams and run away with the game early. This year, towards the end of December they made a shift. Davidson focused on full-court man defense with an emphasis on staying in front of your man. He had the personnel to do it with Lusk, Baker and Clark seemingly endless sources of energy. The track and cross country backgrounds with the former two didn’t hurt either.
The deal with pressure is if you can break it, it leads to easy buckets on the back end. Full-court man doesn’t present as many opportunities for steals but it wears players down as they have to navigate it for 94 feet.
Playing in their 12th quarter in three days and their eighth in less than 24 hours (Williamstown played in the 9 p.m. semifinal game the night before), the Yellowjackets wore down.
That then allowed East to deploy its traps and pressures.
“But I thought definitely late in the fourth quarter you could see (Williamstown) getting tired,” Davidson said. “And we actually talked about it during a timeout that their passes went from short, crisp passes to cross-court passes. And we knew that if that kept happening, we were going to be able to jump those things. So I just thought we started up late and it’s kind of what we’ve been all year.”
It was like watching a python squeeze its prey before swallowing it whole.
Davidson played the long game. He didn’t start seriously deploying his various pressures and traps until the sectional and regional finals. That allowed East to see how teams would respond to its full-court man defense and seal up the holes.
The hole that was exploited was done on Feb. 2.
Circling back to Davidson’s use of Monroe as a point guard, Summers County used center Gracie Harvey to bring the ball up, matching her up on a center all the way up the floor. Summers nearly beat East in that game but showed its hand in the process. As a result Davidson utilized the versatile Clark to matchup on bigger and stronger players.
So what’s next for East?
The eyes surely turn to a three-peat, but it won’t be easy. It’s difficult to tell who will be where from year to year around the state but Williamstown returns most of its roster as does Wheeling Central.
The graduation of Clark feels like one of the biggest blows to the program since Davidson graduated. Â East will return Cameron, Monroe, Baker, Lusk, Blackburn and Kenna Price, all of whom started at various points this year. Growth will need to trump complacency.
Pat Jones’ MonologueÂ
After Nitro won the Class AAA state title, head coach Pat Jones was asked what he’d take away from this season and how it was different from the 2021 title charge he led.
“Blood pressure, medicine, anxiety, stress,” Jones quipped. “Honestly, I’m not even gonna lie. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, this has been the most stressful basketball season I’ve ever had at Nitro High School, and not because of the players. It’s because of the parents. Every game for 28 games, I had at least one parent text me complaining about their kid’s playing time. And I’m not making this up one bit. Every game, at least one parent, most of the time it was two. So to win this lets me know I do know a little bit about coaching. But at the same time, it’s also a thank you to everyone to let them know we’re young. And we can come back and do this again next year. And if you want to play you might want to get in the gym this offseason and prepare.”
That was the quote that’s made the rounds on social media.
When Jones was later asked about what it meant to win this title with his brother Andy, he elaborated even further and gave the most powerful quote of the state tournament.
“Oh, it’s unbelievable,” Jones said. “It’s an unbelievable experience to have him as an assistant coach, my dad as scorekeeper, but it’s a special and yeah, they, pardon my French, but they know the shit that I’ve gone through all year. Because they’re the ones I reach out to the most. I live four doors down from Andy. So he definitely took the brunt of it. But you know, they, they knew the shit I dealt with from these parents this year. I mean, from Game 1 to six o’clock this morning. I woke up from with text messages from a parent wanting to know why her daughter wasn’t dressing. And I’m trying to prepare for a state championship. And I’ve been up since 5:15 (a.m.) with my two-year-olds who have cerebral palsy. So you know, these parents don’t understand the work not only myself, but our coaches do. And it’s all season.
“I get to spend about an hour-and-a-half a day with my kids. I spend more time with these girls. But these parents are unappreciative. And I’m not going to sugarcoat it any more. And I’ve told everybody when this day came, and I got my chance to speak that I was gonna get my words out. Because we work too hard as a coaching staff. These girls work too hard as players for these parents to text me 24/7 When I’m trying to spend time with my family when I get an opportunity because their child is not in the game. If their child wants to play their child needs to get in the gym and work harder. And I’m not sugarcoating it anymore. And I’m tired of sugarcoating it. Obviously, the girls that won the game today and we won a state championship with. We had the right girls on the court at the right time. And that’s the end of my story.”
My jaw hit the floor when Jones said that. It takes real courage to share those types of emotions in an age where coaches have less power and are often at the mercy of parents regardless of how well they perform. There are times when parents and outsiders are correct. This clearly isn’t one of them.
Jones won his first state championship as an underdog while juggling the emotional strain of losing to Co-Player of the Year to an injury earlier in that game. What everyone witnessed that day was nothing short of a miracle.
And then he followed it up by winning a championship as a No. 3 seed after having lost by double digits to the tournament’s top two seeds in the regular season. Yeah, he knows a thing or two about coaching.
He brought light to the lack of respect for boundaries which was disturbing as well. I don’t know Jones super well but I do know he and his wife documented their struggles while attempting to start their family. And when they were able to get pregnant there were complications that led to the premature birth of their twins.
If I’m in the loop on that from Princeton, there’s no doubt the people in his community are aware of the sacrifices he’s making.
I’m happy for Pat and the world is better for him checking those that can’t respect boundaries or just don’t care enough to consider them.
The Tournament MVP DebacleÂ
Last week I wrote about the Tournament MVP awards the West Virginia Sports Writer Association would be giving out. I thought the first three recipients were slam dunks in Natalie Smith (Nitro), Alexis Bordas (Wheeling Park) and Ashlynn Van Tassell (Cameron).
And then double-A happened.
The award was won by Wheeling Central’s Kaitlyn Blake who led Class AA in scoring.
That was a mistake that exposes more of the problems with the voting. I’ll explain how the process works.
Before each championship game those of us along media row are asked if we’d like a ballot to vote. If we say yes we’re given a sheet with tournament totals through two games for numerous statistical categories like points, rebounds, assists, field goal percentage, etc.
There are eight slots on the ballot with a separate spot added this year for MVP.
Here’s a very important detail – the ballots are due by the end of the third quarter and I’m always the last to submit mine. I disagree with taking the ballots that early but I also understand the need to tabulate the votes in a timely manner. I saw another writer who was there for one double-A game all week, fill out a ballot and leave before the title game even tipped off. I don’t understand how you can do that with the final and most important game yet to be played.
And that explains much of the problem.
I saw other media members who rightfully declined to cast a ballot because they hadn’t been there enough throughout the week. When people come down for that one game and take a ballot, they look at that stat sheet and see that Blake scored the most points and write her name in the MVP slot.
Attached is a snippet of the Class AA sheet we received before the game. Notice anything?
The top seven players made the all-tournament team while Charleston Catholic’s Mary Rushworth joined them presumably because she had the second highest scoring average.
I did not have Rushworth on by ballot, instead going with Abi Baker. I had this conversation with Greg Carey from MetroNews and we both agreed anybody who had eyes and watched her all week knew she was one of the best eight players to take that court last week. She was a defensive nightmare and had the second-most steals and offensive rebounds heading into the title game. She finished with the most free-throw attempts (18), most steals (12), second most offensive rebounds (10) and seventh most points scored (25).
As for the MVP, I went with Wyoming East guard Maddie Clark.
Williamstown led 34-31 heading into the fourth quarter and I thought the Yellowjackets would tire, allowing East to win. I wouldn’t have been bothered either if Williamstown’s Faith Pickens won. Again, her team was ahead when the ballots were due and she had been their best player throughout the tournament.
Before the winner was announced Cindy Daniel, an Assistant Executive Director for the WVSSAC, came and gave me the heads up, noting we’d probably have to do something different. I appreciated that and when it was announced Blake won MVP you could hear the confusion and there was even a well-merited boo.
I’ll take the blame on that one.
The award was largely my idea and I left the door open for something like this to happen. I didn’t want to limit the MVP to a title game participant because I think back to a player like Webster County’s Sydney Baird who played in two games but may have had the best tournament in the 2023 Class A field. The award is also the Tournament MVP, not Championship MVP which is why I voted for Clark instead of Blackburn who went scoreless in the first game and ultimately fouled out of it.
Moving forward the plan is to create a stricter criteria for voting. I’m not entirely sure what that means yet but I believe it starts with policing the ballots. We had an issue like this in 2019 when Parkersburg’s Bre Wilson was left off the all-tournament team despite being the Big Reds’ second best player in Charleston. That was when The WVSSAC started numbering the ballots and keeping track of who got what ballot. The process will have another reformation.
Quotes of the week
After 28 games you hear a lot of things. Here were my favorite quotes and snippets of the week.
“You’re tryna get me fined. Now you know who my husband is. I’m not finna get fined.” – Huntington St. Joe head coach Jessica Huff when asked about late game officiating.
“I actually did change my shoes at halftime. I don’t know if anyone noticed but I wore those red shoes like the whole tournament this time but against Morgantown I’ve only worn these white shoes, so I had to do a switch.” – Wheeling Park guard Lala Woods on championship superstitions.
“I can tell you exactly what I said, ‘That was his last (timeout) and he can’t save them again so let’s go get them.’ That’s exactly what it was. And sometimes it works in your favor. Sometimes it doesn’t. And it did today, but we knew that. We could really turn it up at that point because there was no way they could go except throw it to us or throw it out of bounds.” – Wyoming East head coach Ryan Davidson after Williamstown burned its last timeout with 1:40 to play.
“We don’t like to be slowed down, do we girls?” – James Monroe head coach Angie Mann on her team’s 20-5 start against St. Joe.
“So the year we won the state championship we were the three seed. And that year I had two girls quit. This year I had two girls quit. That year I had a girl tear ACL. This year I had a girl tear ACL. That year we won on Hailey (Newsome’s) birthday. Today we won on Carson’s birthday. The boys made the state tournament that year. The boys made the state tournament last Wednesday. So I’m a very superstitious guy. So anybody you ask, I put stuff out there all the time. And I’m like, ‘Hey, this happened then, this happened then.’ And we were a three seed. So I’m 2-0 in the 9 a.m. games and I’m 0-2 in 9 p.m. games.” – Nitro head coach Pat Jones on his superstitions.
The Final Buzzer
I thought the Williamstown-Wyoming East title game was the perfect indicator of how this year’s state tournament unfolded. No lead was safe no matter how big or how late it was held. George Washington led 18-4 in the semifinal against Morgantown and lost. Wheeling Park led by 16 points with three minutes to go in the Class AAAA semis and only six with over a minute to play.
Gilmer County trailed by 15 points at halftime of the Class A title game and cut the deficit to two in the fourth quarter. St. Joe trailed 20-5 in the opening quarter of its quarterfinal game against James Monroe and took the lead before eventually losing to the Mavericks. Charleston Catholic led Wyoming East by seven points late in the third quarter before falling. Wyoming East rallying from an 11-point deficit with four minutes to go fit the theme perfectly.
In general it was an exciting week in Charleston and of the seven state tournaments I’ve been fortunate enough to cover, this one felt like the most attended during my tenure with Gilmer County, Nitro, Lewis County, George Washington and Wyoming East (cheering section champion Savannah Smoot) producing standout crowds. All in attendance were treated to a great slate of championship games that were competitive in the fourth quarter.
***
I can’t go out without recognizing a pair of Concord guards in Jazz Blankenship and Skylar Davidson. The duo played together at Wyoming East and had the chance to reunite after Davidson transferred from Glenville State this past summer.
They won their first round Mountain East Conference game together and against West Virginia State they led the Mountain Lions in scoring. Davidson notched 18 points while Blankenship scored 17.
I was fortunate enough to spend the first four years of my career covering the duo. They did whatever was needed of them, even playing out of position at times. I caught a little bit of the game between state championship sessions and it was nostalgic seeing those two light up the scoreboard one more time.
Wes McKinney, the SID at Concord, asked Davidson about sharing that moment together.
“Jazz and I, we’ve grown up together,” Davidson said. “It meant a lot being on her team for her last year. It wasn’t our first time in a tough game and it wasn’t our first time in a loss together. For us to really piggyback off each other for the whole game, I think that’s why we stayed in it. Jazz has always been my family and at one point everyone thought we were twins. We’ve been joined at the hip for a minute and I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. Being at Concord with her is really special. Just having a friend like that is really special.”
After that McKinney asked for a prediction for the game Class AA title game.
“Oh, they’re getting a dub,” Davidson smirked, referring to East.
A chip off the old block.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94.
