Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
CHAPMANVILLE Class AA No. 5 Summers County was able to flip the script Friday afternoon to avenge an earlier season loss to Class AA co-No. 7 Chapmanville.
The Lady Bobcats used a late third quarter run to take control of a tight contest and held off a late fourth quarter rally for a 42-40 victory over the Lady Tigers at the Danny Godby Gymnasium.
Sullivan Pivont scored 15 points and knocked down three second half 3-pointers as Summers County shot 50 percent from the field but hadn't a 3-pointer until Pivont's first make with 2:49 to play in the third quarter.
"Sullivan was the hot hand tonight and she needed those," Summers County coach Chad Meador said. "We knew eventually that it was going to go in. You got to remain confident, and you got to keep shooting."
After Haley Fleming's 3 gave Chapmanville a 26-25 lead with 3:51 to play in third quarter, Pivont hit three 3's in the Lady Bobcats 15-2 run the spanned the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter.
Summers County was able to flip the script on Chapmanville, who outscored the Lady Bobcats 20-6 in the third quarter of a 50-40 win on Dec. 17 in the finals of the Rogers Oil Tournament.
In Summers County's two losses this season, the Lady Bobcats have been outscored 34-11 in the third quarter.
"All season long we have played a good half of basketball, it has typically been in the first half and not the back half," Meador said. "At halftime we talked about putting a whole game together. We have done good in the first half, but that third quarter has killed us."
"The third quarter killed us the other night against Wyoming East and the third quarter killed us against Chapmanville in our tournament," Meador said. "We knew if we could get to the third and hang on in the fourth, we would see what happens."
Summers County appeared to be in control leading by eight points, 40-32, with 2:17 to play, however, Chapmanville Alaira Evans caught fire, scoring 8 of her game-high 18 points in a span of 1:32 to bring the Lady Tigers within one point, 41-40, after her 3-pointer with 0:45 remaining.
Pivont spilt a pair of free throws giving Summers County a 42-40 lead with 0:40 remaining, leaving Chapmanville with a chance to tie or take the lead with a 3, however, Evans was called for a charge as she lowered her shoulder in attempt to score to the tie the game on a drive to the low block.
Summers County inbounded the ball and was able to dribble out the remaining 0:03 and escape with the victory and avenge one of two regular season losses this season.
Chapmanville coach Kristina Gore knew Summers County would play with intensity from start to finish. As for her Lady Tigers, Gore felt they played with no intensity.
"They (Summers County) brought it from the tip, and I knew they would be ready to avenge their loss from when we beat them down there," Gore said. "We didn't even come close to matching their intensity level, which is the story of the game for me. The effort and intensity at times wasn't there."
"None of our cuts were hard, none of them were crisp, we didn't make good contacts on screens. It looked like we didn't want to play today," Gore said. "I am not sure if it was the holiday lull, if it is underestimating an opponent that you beat on the road. You can't do that, you got to be ready to play every night and we weren't so we got what we should have."
Despite shooting 17 of 34 from the floor and 3 of 6 from 3-point range, Summers County shot just 5 of 18 from the free throw line leaving the door open for a Chapmanville comeback attempt.
"The last two days we have been working on shooting but not from the free throw line," Meador said. "We shot like 26 or 28 percent from the field against Wyoming East so we paused from all other deals expect for shooting drills."
"We will start shooting some more free throws," Meador said. "You can't simulate the pressure in practice of shooting free throws."
Harvey finished with eight points and hauled down a game-high 11 rebounds while Abby Persinger contributed with eight points and seven rebounds. Liv Meador added five points, Avery Lilly four points and Cheyanne Smith two points for the Lady Bobcats.
"She (Harvey) has been playing well and has been averaging a double-double, but she doesn't care as long as we win," Meador said. "That is the kind of mentality of our team. There is really nobody that really wants theirs, it's a collective measure and when you are in this region it has to be a collective measure."
"You have to have one goal and one goal in mind, and that is to win," Meador said. "Whatever it takes. It may be Sullivan one night, it may be Gracie the next night, it may be somebody coming off the bench the next night that sparks us."
Chapmanville shot 14 of 39 from the floor, was 4 of 18 from behind the arc and made 8 of 15 free throw attempts.
Evans was the only Lady Tiger to reach double figures. Haley Fleming finished with seven points; Farley had six points; Jaiden Mahon had four points, Brooke Christian three points and Chloe Thompson two points.
"Poor shooting night, a poor shooting night," Gore said. "We shot poor from the line tonight, Alaira struggled from the line, and she wasn't her fundamentally sound self, which of course hurt us, but we have too many players that are capable of going out and having a great game that one person having an off night shouldn't hurt us, but it does hurt us when we don't play with intensity and effort."
"I felt like Brooke played hard. She went in there and gave it everything that she had," Gore said. "I didn't feel like we pushed the offensive tempo like we did down there."
Summers County committed 18 turnovers while Chapmanville turned the ball over 13 times, however, Gore said the Lady Tigers turnovers were of the live ball variety while Summers County's turnovers were of the dead ball variety.
"We are making live ball turnovers, they are making dead ball turnovers, and it is hard to get into a good rhythm in an up-tempo game when you are not creating live ball turnovers," Gore said.
Summers County improved to 7-2 with the win and will travel to Greenbrier West Tuesday night.
"I know Coach Agee well and Coach Agee will have his team ready. They do a little 2-2-1 press and we saw a little 2-2-1 press tonight and it kind of gave us fits," Meador said. "We will go to Greenbrier West and hopefully we can have this same hunger in Charmco. We will be ready, and so will they so we will tip the ball up and see what happens."
Chapmanville falls to 6-3 with the loss and will travel to Class AAA No. 7 Nitro Tuesday night.
"I honestly felt like our girls just assumed that we were going to walk in and win the game because it says Lady Tigers on our chest because we are having a pretty good year and we are better than what we used to be," Gore said. "We haven't done anything yet; we haven't accomplished anything so why we are acting like that I have no idea, but we got some serious attitude adjustments to make to see if we can right the ship heading into January."
"We are getting into the teeth of our schedule and there is nothing easy about it. We want to be battle tested by the time the postseason rolls around, but we have to show up to battle," Gore said. "If we don't do that at Nitro then we will get beat. Pat Jones and his staff do a great job, and his girls always play hard. If we go down there and play like we are capable, with a chip on our shoulder then we should be ok."