Bruce McKean
Contributing Writer
PCHS Varsity, 47
Richwood Varsity, 46
The Pocahontas County High School Lady Warriors traveled to Richwood January 24 for their second match up this season. The game was held at the middle school gym due to the high school gym being severely damaged in the June flooding. Governor Jim Justice paid for a new gym floor that has enabled Richwood to continue to play their games in Richwood. Richwood students are now attending school in less than ideal conditions, outside of the town.
When Richwood played at PCHS on December 14, the Lady Warriors scored 18 points in both the third and fourth quarters to cement the 68-46 win, while RHS scored only six points in the fourth stanza. In this game, Richwood scored 18 points in both the third and fourth quarters to come within one point of the victorious Warriors 47-46 who led the entire game. RHS was down one point and got to put the ball in play right under their basket with 4.4 seconds left in the game, and the unlucky shooter missed her shot that would have won the game.
Game high scorers were seniors Mary Kelley and Sarah Ryder with 16 points each. Ryder had a double-double with 10 rebounds. Kelley averages three treys and four twos per game with a team-high 43 percent accuracy on both. Mary’s 67 percent foul shot accuracy is second on the team to fellow-senior Brittney Sharp at 69 percent. Freshmen starters Charity Warder and Alexa Taylor added six and five points to the cause respectively, and Warder grabbed six rebounds while Taylor dished out four assists.
RHS 5’9” junior Amelia Bard was team high scorer with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Seniors 5’11” Erica Lawrence and 6’0” Kora Younts also had double-doubles of 10 points each and 10 and 13 rebounds respectively. Their fourth senior, Katie Mullins, scored nine points, and that total senior effort almost upset PCHS.
Richwood’s height resulted in a 40-28 rebounding advantage. PCHS freshman Laila Calhoun grabbed seven rebounds. RHS drops to 2-9, but with four strong seniors, they are peaking at the right time, and are one of the six teams PCHS could face in the Region 3 post-season. PCHS improved to 7-6.
PCHS JV, 37
Richwood JV, 12
Richwood only had enough players to play a two-quarter JV game on Tuesday. Their first four-quarter encounter at PCHS December 14 ended in a PCHS 44-17 win. This time the Lady Warriors came out even stronger and took the first quarter 27-4 behind game-high scorers Calhoun’s 11 points in the first quarter and sophomore Aliza Carr’s 12 points over two quarters. Freshman Sage McLaughlin added six points in two quarters of play. The second quarter was a closer 10-8 PCHS advantage. RHS freshman Kylei Jones put up eight points. The PCHS JV improved to 5-3.
PCHS Varsity, 67
Webster County Varsity, 20
PCHS traveled across Kinnison Mountain the next night, January 25, to Upper Glade for the first of two games this season with Webster County, and the Lady Warriors rolled over the Highlanders 67 – 20. Before the game was over all-eleven PCHS girls on the varsity roster had played in at least two quarters and had produced stats with 10 girls scoring points. With Webster leading 3 – 0 to start the game, PCHS went on a 17 – 0 run with a basket by Ryder followed by senior Lindsey Hartzell hitting four straight shots for nine points and Kelly nailing two treys. After one quarter, PCHS led 19 – 6.
Coach Mike Kane subbed in every quarter, and with subs playing much of the second stanza, PCHS took the second 25 – 6 with Kelley adding 12 more points. The third quarter was a closer 10 – 3 PCHS effort, and the last quarter ended 13 – 2 in our favor as the PCHS bench turned up their defense.
High scorers for PCHS were: Kelley – 25, Hartzell – 9, Taylor – 8 and Kira Bircher – 6. Ryder had game-highs of seven rebounds and five assists. Taylor led the team with four steals and was second with four assists. Calhoun grabbed a team-high five offensive rebounds. WCHS sophomore Sierra Riffle tallied a game-high 12 rebounds and a team-high eight points.
The WCHS roster included only one senior and one junior, so a very young team dropped to 2-13. PCHS improved to 8-6, and will host East Hardy on February 6 with the JV game at 5:45 p.m. and the varsity game at 7:30 p.m.