Bruce McKean
Contributing Writer
PCHS Varsity, 39
Tucker County Varsity, 41
For the second year in a row we drove into a surprise white-out of ice, snow and dense white fog on the way to the mountain at Tucker County High School on January 28. The biggest following this season of Pocahontas County High School fans at an away game made the trek up the mountain to support the now #3 (Coaches Poll) Lady Warriors who played the now #7 Mountain Lions. Both games this season with Tucker went down to the wire with the visiting teams starting slow and then mounting strong come-backs in the fourth frame that fell just short of victory. Tucker lost at PCHS 45-47, and Pocahontas lost at TCHS 39-41.
Tucker took the first quarter 10-4 Tuesday with an end-of-quarter 6-0 run. A trey each from Kierstin Taylor and Alexa Taylor in the second helped PCHS keep the lead at six with an 8-8 tie in the stanza. Starting sophomore point guard London Hood, who was Tucker’s high scorer in the first matchup with 20 points, injured her ankle in the second and did not return. Senior top scorer Terra Kuhn moved over to point guard until she got in foul trouble in the third, finishing the game with three regular fouls and one technical while only scoring six points, the same as the last game.
TCHS freshman 6’1” center Kadie Colebank got our attention in the third when she scored eight more points, and the Mountain Lions took the stanza 14-11, giving them a 32-23 lead going into the final frame. TCHS led in the third early by 11 points (24-13) and late by 11 (32-21).
Laila Calhoun took over in the fourth and scored nine of her team-high 14 game points (double-double with 11 rebounds and four steals), including hitting five of five free throws. Colebank scored seven more of her game high 21-points (double-double with 13 rebounds). Pocahontas tied the game twice late at 37-37 and 39-39 on shots by Kierstin Taylor and Calhoun. A last second PCHS shot was blocked by Colebank.
PCHS (12-4) hit eight of 15 foul shots (53%), and TCHS (11-5) made nine of 16 (56%). Tucker tallied more turnovers, 22 to 17 for PCHS, and more rebounds, 38 to 35 for PCHS. Kierstin Taylor off-the-bench scored 11 points including two threes. Alexa Taylor (six assists) and Charity Warder (six rebounds) scored five points each, while Kira Bircher (six rebounds and four steals) put up four points. Sienna Bircher grabbed seven rebounds. PCHS made only 14 of 51 field goals (27%).
PCHS JV, 45
Tucker County JV, 22
PCHS JV lost at home to Tucker County January 17, 30-34, so it was a surprise when the Lady Warriors won 45-22 Tuesday at Tucker. Neither team seemed capable of making a field goal in the first quarter of Tuesday’s game, but PCHS took it 1-0 when Rayna Smith hit one of two foul shots. Things improved some in the second quarter, and PCHS took it 14-4 led by Cloey Sharp’s six points.
The maroon and gold seemed to feed off the support of their fans and took the third stanza 23-6. Ma-kayla Ervine’s 12 points in the third, including two treys, were the team’s game high points tallied in just one quarter. At that point the Mountain Lions were down 10-38. Tucker took the fourth 12-7 and PCHS improved to 7-6 with the 45-22 win.
Game high scorer was Tucker freshman Jacey Da-vis with 14 points and seven rebounds. Tessa Kiner tallied nine points and six rebounds. Macaden Taylor matched the game high six rebounds plus added game-highs of five steals, five blocks and three assists (shared with Talisa Arbogast and Allyson Alderman). Haley Spencer had a game-high of three deflections. TCHS committed 47 turnovers versus 26 for PCHS. PCHS out-rebounded TCHS 30-24. Tucker hit 10 of 12 (83%) foul shots, and PCHS hit 4 of 16 (25%).
Charleston Catholic Varsity, 28
PCHS Varsity, 41
#10 (AP Poll) Charleston Catholic traveled to #4 PCHS February 1 for their annual game between two Class A Region III Section 1 opponents. Catholic arrived with a five game winning streak that included a win over #6 Wheeling Central Catholic. At this point of the season, teams in the same class, region and/or section are thinking about seeding for the post-season.
PCHS pulled away from the Irish with a 17-3 fourth quarter that saw senior Laila Calhoun shooting 11 free throws and making only three (uncharacteristic of Laila). Calhoun finished with a double-double of 11 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three deflections. Charity Warder tallied a double-double of 12 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. Alexa Taylor compiled eight points, eight deflections, four assists and four rebounds. Kira Bircher notched seven steals, seven rebounds, three blocks, three points and four deflections. Jerica Reed played great defense, tallied five points and hit the only PCHS trey early in the game. Sienna Bircher grabbed five rebounds. Kierstin Taylor contributed four rebounds, two foul shots in the fourth and played great defense.
PCHS improves to 13-4, and CCHS drops to 10-6. PCHS led by three, 11-8, after one quarter, and CCHS led by four, 19-15, after two and by one, 25-24, after three. With 4:39 to go in the game, PCHS was up 30-28, and PCHS finished with an 11-0 run and hit 71% of their field goals in the fourth. PCHS out-rebounded CCHS 44-25. The Irish led by six points at some point in each of the first three quarters.
PCHS plays a varsity game at Richwood Friday, February 7, at 7 p.m.
The Warriors will host Pendleton County for the annual Pink Out Game Saturday, February 8, (JV -2 p.m., V – 3:30 p.m.), and travel to Calhoun County at Mt. Zion Tuesday, February 11, (JV – 5:45p.m., V – 7:30 p.m.).