By Stephen Smoot
East Hardy’s girl’s squad came to Franklin last week sporting three wins, one over Fairmont Senior. Pendleton County had a similar number of victories and also boasted experience against some of the state’s larger schools.
The Wildcats missed the talents of reliable senior center Gabby DePue who was out due to illness. Reserve freshman Olivia Gonshor, however, returned to the lineup.
Pendleton County took the opening tip, but lost a steal to the Cougars in the first 10 seconds. They scored first almost 50 seconds into the game with a 10-foot jump shot. Over the course of the quarter, they extended to an 11-2 lead as the basket proved unforgiving to normally accurate Wildcat shooters.
With a little less than two minutes remaining in the first, Susan Vincell took a pass, dribbled once, then drew a foul as she hit a shot. She completed the old fashioned three-point play and cut the lead to seven.
East Hardy, however, outscored the Wildcats nine to three (a deep Avery Townsend shot) to cap first quarter scoring at 20-8.
One of the keys to Pendleton County scoring lies in making offense out of defense. Townsend, Julia Mongold, and Jameigh Miller all came up with steals, but East Hardy got back on defense quickly enough to prevent fast break points throughout the first half.
Pendleton County sliced away at the lead during the second quarter, mostly with outside shooting. Mongold buried a three at the 6:40 mark and again later in the stanza. Townsend hit a pull up three at the 3:42 mark to set the score at 24-16. Vincell with 40 seconds left took an offensive rebound in for a layup. A last second Wildcat three cut the score to 32-23 in the favor of East Hardy.
The first two and a half minutes of the third quarter saw East Hardy put together an eight to one run to gain a 40-24 lead. By the 2:50 mark, the lead was 47-27 but the Wildcats did not give in.
With 2:10 left in the frame, Townsend found Nataley Hedrick for a layup. Townsend then hit a three with just under two minutes left to cut the lead to 48-33.
Townsend opened the fourth with two steals in the first 30 seconds, but East Hardy pushed the lead back to 20 with 5:49 left in the game. Townsend stole the ball and scored, followed by a Vincell score in the paint. With 3:20 left, Townsend took a steal the distance and scored, then shot a three at the 3:49 mark to cut the lead to 51-43.
The last five minutes of the game saw Pendleton County ratcheting up the intensity with Hedrick getting a blocked shot and taking rebounds. Scoring, however, ended on an East Hardy layup with 50 seconds left, putting the final score at 59-46.
The Wildcats are scheduled to travel to Petersburg tonight and will host Keyser on Saturday. On Jan. 23 the Wildcats are on the road to Tygarts Valley. They will host Petersburg on Jan. 25.