By Stephen Smoot
“It was a dark and stormy night” serves as the much maligned opening of the 1830 Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel Paul Clifford. Fortunately, this writer of tales saw better days as Britain’s successful Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Similarly, Pendleton County’s boys team will get past the dark and stormy night that troubled the team as it opened the season last week.
The Tucker County Mountain Lions bring a mountain of experience to their roster this year, starting with six seniors. Most teams with such experience have the ability to establish the narrative and drive the plot of a game to their liking.
Pendleton County relies on a mixed roster of seniors, juniors and sophomores, with players of all levels of experience working to contribute. Many of the core players this year, talented and aggressive though they are, will remain a work in progress as they gain experience and confidence.
That all said, Pendleton County gave Tucker County a strong first half.
In the first two and a half minutes, the Mountain Lions crawled out to a 6 to 0 lead. Wildcat defenders remained active, denying their opponents good shot opportunities.
At the 5:20 mark in the first quarter, Josiah Kimble scored his team’s first points as he buried a three-point shot. Tucker County followed with a layup, then fouled Kimble in the act of shooting. Two shots brought the Wildcats back within three, then Cashton Kisamore wrested away an offensive rebound and scored a layup to set the score at 8 to 7 Tucker County with more than four minutes left in the quarter.
Pendleton County kept the game close for most of the rest of the first half. The Mountain Lions took a six-point lead early in the second quarter. Zykijah Wright responded with a layup at the 6:34 point. Then Henry Warner grabbed an offensive rebound and scored his own layup to put the score at 18 to 16 Mountain Lions.
After a Tucker County 15-footer, Wyatt Franklin found Kimble streaking toward the basket for a layup to cut the lead to two again.
With 2:45 left, Kisamore took an offensive rebound to the basket for a layup, then blocked a shot at the other end. The score at this point was 23 to 20, Tucker County.
After Kisamore’s block, the deluge.
In the last minute and thirty seconds, Tucker County went on an eight to nothing run to extend the lead to 31 to 20 at the end of the first half.
In the second half, Tucker County shut down a lot of the shot opportunities that Pendleton County enjoyed in the first. Their shooting also became much more accurate. Mountain Lion shooters hit repeatedly from the perimeter and also found a number of opportunities near the basket.
The Wildcats showed flashes of what they will become as their players gain experience. Kimble scored 14 points from the field, followed by Kisamore’s seven. Chase Owens, due to injury, had limited action, but scored three points. Dusty Smith played well defensively and scored two. Wright and Justus Kuykendall also contributed two.
The West Virginia Daily News released its coaches’ poll last week. Tucker County took first place with nine first place and 130 votes overall. Coaches gave Pendleton County 38 votes and a ranking of ninth. East Hardy placed seventh.
On Friday night, the Wildcats faced off with Jefferson, voted fifth in quad A, and lost 90 to 50. Monday night’s home opener against Pocahontas County was postponed due to inclement weather. They were scheduled to travel to Tygarts Valley on Wednesday and will host Harman on Dec. 20.
