Girls Class Aa Championship: ; Endless Summers; Bobcats Defeat Scott for Fourth Consecutive Title

Summary

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CLASS AA SUMMERS CO. 58 SCOTT 50

Four years of Summers County domination have brought an inevitable rise in expectations and, as expectations rose, they brought something else: pressure. The weight of those expectations might easily have crept into the Bobcats psyches in Saturday afternoons championship, especially as the upstart Scott Skyhawks posed threats and the pro-Scott crowd raised a frightful din. And besides, the Skyhawks were willing to run with their fast-breaking opponent. The Bobcats, however, answered each threat to extend their winning streak to 68 and salt away their fourth straight Class AA title, defeating the Skyhawks 58-50 Saturday afternoon at the Charleston Civic Center. A crowd of about 3,500 attended. The streak of four straight titles is longest ever by a Class AA school and matches Mercer Christians 1999-2002 streak. The No. 1 Bobcats (28- 0) twice led by 14 in the third quarter, but the No. 2 Skyhawks (22- 5) scored the final eight points of the third quarter to cut the deficit to six points and offer the prospect of fourth-quarter drama and perhaps a monumental upset. In the Summers County huddle after the third quarter, coach Wayne Ryan said little about strategy but instead appealed to his players competitive juices. I told them weve come too far, he related later. Weve done too much. Draw your line and when we go back out there, answer the bell. Suitably inspired, the Bobcats Leslie Mack responded with a basket eight seconds into the fourth quarter, and Hallie Gunnoe, who would finish with 31 points, scored shortly thereafter, restoring the lead to 10 points at 48-38. The Skyhawks made one final threat on the scoring of Makenzie White and Ciera Bias, cutting the lead to 55-48 with 54 seconds left, but Mack, Ashley Brown and Hanna Gunnoe each hit a free throw in the final minute to make things a little easier. It was the third time this season the Bobcats had beaten the Skyhawks each time by 10 points or less and it was their lowest point total of the season, a point shy of their 59-49 victory over Scott on Jan. 23. And by extending their winning streak, theyre still in pursuit of Parkersburg Catholics state-record run of 88, which ended in 1979. The Bobcats started only one senior on Saturday. Ryan, who has coached the Bobcats during the four-year reign, tried to lend perspective. Its a tremendous accomplishment. Its not one to take lightly, he said. And heres whats more special: Those players have shown up ready to play every night. He also noted that, as the obvious favorite, the Bobcats were forced to deal with high expectations. There was a little bit of pressure on us going into this game the win streak, consecutive titles and all that, said the Summers coach. But we got the job done. Every time we needed a key stop or key basket, we got it. Said Hallie Gunnoe, I feel like we really accomplished our goal. We won a state title and on the way we never lost a game. Thats pretty much what we practiced for. After a close first quarter, Summers led by as many as 13 in the second quarter, but Scott trimmed the deficit to seven at halftime. And after Summers twice built 14-point leads in the third quarter, Scott rallied on baskets by Kate Tadlock, Bias, Shaneece Price and White to end the quarter at 44-38. Scott coach John Porter was pleased his team stayed competitive. There were times when we were down 14 or so, it would have been easy to say, Were here. Weve accomplished our goal of getting to the last game. But we werent finished, said Porter. We came back and I think with 20 seconds to go, we still had a shot at it. It was a heckuva battle. The better team probably won today, but we played as hard, if not harder, than they did. Scott senior Brittani Adkins knows that she and her teammates accomplished quite a bit. I never thought Id be on a team that ended up No. 2 playing in the state tournament, said Adkins. Im just glad I got to be a part of it. I know Im going to walk out of here, and all of our supporters are going to give us a big hug and still be happy for us. Gunnoe scored her 31 points on 14-of-24 shooting, finishing six points shy of the AA state tournament record of 37 points set by Ritchie Countys Missy Spangler in 2001. Gunnoe and Candace Brown led the team with 10 rebounds. Senior Ashley Brown, a starter on the four championship teams, led the Bobcats with five assists. Mack hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the Summers scoring and finished with 13 points. White led Scott with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting and had eight assists. Bias added 14 points on a 5-of-13 effort. Adkins led all rebounders with 11. I feel Summers County is probably the best team in the state right now, said Porter, and has been for a couple years and will be for who knows how long. Id like to see a playoff with the three winners of this tournament.

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Girls Class Aa Championship: ; Endless Summers; Bobcats Defeat Scott for Fourth Consecutive Title

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