By Stephen Smoot
If Pendleton County boys’ basketball head coach, Josh Owens, wanted a week to prepare his squad for the rigors of the post-season, the last two weeks have served up a bit of everything. Between Feb. 9 and 21, in 12 days, the Wildcats played the toughest competition of the season and played seven games while crisscrossing the state.
Last Monday, the Wildcats posted another victory over Tucker County 62-51. While the home-standing Mountain Lions eked an early lead by the end of the first, 11-7, the Wildcats outscored them 55-40 the rest of the way.
Chase Owens led the way with 20 points. Travis Owens and Cashton Kisamore posted 12 a piece, while Jaydon Hess contributed 10, Henry Warner six, and Ty Heavner two. Warner grabbed nine rebounds and Kisamore seven. Hess had three steals and the same number of assists.
Then the Wildcats took on two teams from Class AAA. They played Lewis County Minutemen last Wednesday. Their Saturday road trip took them from the South Branch Valley to the Ohio Valley to compete against Spring Valley.
Pendleton County did open well against the Minutemen. Kisamore controlled the jump ball to give his team the opening possession. Chase Owens angled a pass to Kisamore on the post for the opening score of the game. At the 7:15 point, Chase Owens fired a pass from the post out to Warner who took a foul on a three-point shot and made all of his free throws.
Lewis County kept pace during the first, never falling too far behind the home team. They employed a two-two-one full court press that pushes opposing ball handlers to the outside, then traps them as they cross half court. The visiting squad’s athleticism mirrored that of the home team, with both teams sporting long, lanky, athletic playmakers on both sides of the ball.
Pendleton County, however, was missing one of its key catalysts, sophomore guard Travis Owens. More than his 8.2 points per game, the Wildcats missed his opportunistic aggressiveness on defense and his near three assists per game. He also provided one more player that defenses cannot afford to ignore, which would have made the press trap of the Minutemen much less effective.
Chase Owens and Kisamore took the game to Lewis County. With 3:15 left in the first, Kisamore blocked a Minuteman shot. Not 20 seconds later, he wrested away an offensive rebound and laid it in to put his team up 19-14. Lewis County closed the gap to two with three free throws after an outside foul.
Once again, Chase Owens answered with two of his 19 points, driving in the lane, extending his arm, and arcing the ball in to push the lead to five. With just over a minute remaining, he swiped the ball and took it coast to coast for a layup and a seven-point advantage.
Then came a disastrous quarter in which the Lewis County athletes kicked their effort into another gear and outscored the home team 21 to two in the second stanza. Setting aside that quarter, the Wildcats outscored the visiting team 43 to 37. The final score ended up 57 to 45 in favor of Lewis County.
Kisamore had the second leading effort in scoring with 13. Warner scored seven and Dalton Rohrbaugh, Hess, and Tony VanMeter each scored two. Cameron Wyatt led the team in assists with three.
Spring Valley also handled the Wildcats with a 76-45 win. Games, however, against teams from much larger schools serve a purpose. They force the Wildcats to elevate their own games to compete and develop resilience in the process. The hope is that after battling Class AAA squads, that what was learned there can be deployed against same-size schools in the post season.
The Wildcats’ final game of the regular season will be against the Petersburg Vikings on Monday at home.
