By Stephen Smoot
For four years, Avery Townsend, Julia Mongold, and Jenna Smith have lit up their respective sports. Townsend plays with quiet ruthlessness punctuated with frenetic, Tasmainian Devil style energy. Mongold serves up the fire to Townsend’s ice, fueled by emotion. Smith is the tactician who sees and breaks down the game, bringing dogged determination to every contest.
Last Wednesday, the community celebrated their careers on senior night. They then set down to the business of beating the East Hardy Cougars.
The Cougars launched a three-point shot and hit it on their first possession, taking the lead with just under 30 seconds in the game. East Hardy then employed a high energy, scrappy defense designed to do anything possible to slow down the Wildcat scoring machines.
For the first quarter, the swarming Wildcat defense kept the Cougars from getting high quality shot attempts. Pendleton County had strong looks in the same quarter, but shots simply did not fall. They also played a bit ragged, perhaps showing some initial senior night jitters.
Townsend scored the first point, a free throw, with 4:20 left in the first. About a half minute later, Jameigh Miller took a Townsend pass and hit a three to tie the contest. Not long after, Miller wrested an offensive rebound and laid the ball in to give her team its first lead at 6-4.
At that point, the Wildcats settled in and the offense gained some rhythm. At the two minute mark, Miller fired the ball inside to Susan Vincell, who made a quick move and scored a layup. With 1:21 left, Townsend dumped a pass inside to Vincell for another close score, making the lead 10-4.
Scoring continued to come slowly in the second quarter even as Pendleton County put distance between themselves and the visitors. Vincell took the reigns in this quarter, dominating East Hardy on the post. With a few ticks under four minutes to play in the first half, she took an offensive rebound and scored to lift her team to a 16-8 advantage.
Not long after, a Townsend free throw gave the Wildcats a 19 to 10 lead, but East Hardy rebounded with two free throws and a layup to slice the lead almost in half. With seconds ticking away in the half, Townsend took a steal to the hoop and scored. The Wildcats led 21-15.
Pendleton County took control in the third quarter. Donnie Kopp, head coach, opted to rest his post duo of Vincell and Miller for much of the quarter, but the Wildcats continued to slowly grind out a larger and larger advantage. They started the second half going on an eight to nothing run, effectively putting away the Cougars.
Part of that run saw Mongold pulling up and drilling a six-foot shot, followed by Jessica Parker stealing the ball and firing a pass to Townsend for a layup. East Hardy broke the run with a three at the 4:51 mark, but then Townsend and Smith executed a give and go ending in Townsend fouled, sent to the line, and adding a free throw. Miller followed with a three to set the lead at 33-19. Mongold hit her own three at the 1:41 mark, pushing the score to 35-23.
Pendleton County piled on points in the fourth, extending the lead to 50-28 at the four minute mark. The Wildcats then pulled back to run clock with a safe lead. Two threes at the end for the Cougars closed the final gap to 50-34.
Kopp had praise for his three seniors. “Avery, she does it all, academics, every sport. She’s a coach’s dream and a parent’s dream too.” Then he described Smith as bearing “the heart of a lion” and “ a shut down defender.”
Of Mongold, Kopp said, “She’s come a long way. She’s full of ability.”
Each of the three also star for the Wildcat softball team.
Pendleton County played Friday night in their first regional game versus Paw Paw.
With the win against Paw Paw, the Wildcats were scheduled to host Pocahontas County on Wednesday. Winner of that contest advances to the state tournament.