For some, a 36-34 win wouldn’t seem all that impressive in a regional basketball championship.
For PikeView that outcome was welcome.
After all, defense has become the identity of the Panthers and beating one of the top teams in the state in Sissonville with a spot in Charleston on the line was an affirmation that their strategy worked.
But it took nearly a month to get everyone on the same page.
Early in the year it became obvious for PikeView head coach Tracy Raban and her crew that if they wanted to make it back to the state tournament then they’d need to focus on what they could do instead of what they couldn’t. And while their official state tournament run begins Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. against Nitro, the commitment that got them this far required buy in two months ago.
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Through its first three games PikeView found itself sitting at 3-3, having broken 50 points just two times.
Three of those games came against state tournament teams from a year ago in Wyoming East, Beckley and Ripley. The Panthers mustered just 40, 37 and 29 points in those losses.
After that stretch PikeView had nearly three weeks off between weather and Christmas break.
Since that stretch the Panthers have yielded 50 points just once and its been the catalyst for their winter run.
“I think it changed when we went to Logan, and knocked off Philip Barbour and Robert C. Byrd,” Raban said. “They started to buy in there. You know, we came home and had some little setbacks but I think the Summers County game at home and the Beckley game at home, and even the Summers game away made us start to believe in that. The sectional games and the regional games that we’ve won have made them be like, ‘Coach defense really does win championships’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been telling you and I’ve been there and done it.’ They bought in and I think they’ve showed these last few games what it can do.”
The Philip Barbour game proved to be a massive one for PikeView during a time in which most were selling their PikeView stock. The Panthers were 4-3, unranked in the AP poll and staring down the state runners-up from a year ago on a neutral court in Logan.
PikeView made a statement with a 52-49 win that opened some eyes. But the next game, the following afternoon, provided a different challenge that inspired PikeView’s run. Playing on short rest, the Panthers bested ranked Robert C. Byrd 26-25.
It was enough to sell the team’s most talented scorer, Riley Meadows, on the style Raban was trying to implement.
“I’ve always been the type of player like where it was definitely offense I always focused on,” Meadows said. “I think it was the two games in Logan that changed my mind. I’d always heard the saying, ‘Defense wins championships’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, okay. You can’t win without points.’ But then I really bought into that when we started really playing defense. We held these teams to like, 20 points when they averaged 60. And I noticed that, yeah, I get recognition for my offensive efforts but then also, after the Sissonville game I got really recognized for my defensive efforts. And I just thought about it more and it’s not necessarily offense for me. Now, it’s about how many points can I hold my target to and that’s more points for me. I might not have scored a lot offensively but defensively I kept their person from scoring and that’s helping my team and me.”
Raban herself has always been an advocate for defense. A state champion as a player at Mercer Christian and an All-American at Glenville State, she’s seen what it takes to win when everybody can play. The experience has given her a level of clout and as her preachings have manifested into victories she’s made believers out of players like Meadows.
“I think it goes back to them believing in and respecting and trusting me and me just pushing them daily,” Raban said. “It’s defense and I’ve been throwing some stats at them this year. We’re looking at our offensive stats and we’re not an offensive killer team. So therefore, I ask what is winning us ballgames and its defense and they’ve started believing in that. These kids are wanting matchups, and they’re believing that they can bring more to the team defensively than just having to score more points. I can get those points for my team by getting stops on defense. Those comments have been made and when you hear that, it’s like these kids are believing and they’re trusting me. We’ve arrived at the point where defense wins championships.”
No player epitomizes that philosophy more than senior point guard Cat Farmer.
Undersized, Farmer has become Raban’s avatar on the court and was one of the earliest players to buy into the defensive end, drawing praise from her head coach last season or her efforts.
“I felt like last year we were primarily a defensive team too,” Farmer said. “But I feel like this year has just been another level. I mean, (the coaches) have been on us the whole time, the whole offseason about defense.”
“We can tell in warmups what type of game we’re going to have because of Cat,” Raban said. “If she’s having a good warmup or she’s down in the dumps, we’re down in the dumps. And we’ve had that talk. You’re a leader. We go as you go. There was one game where I had two or three girls come up to me in warmups and were like, ‘Coach what’s wrong with Cat? You gotta get to her’ and so I tell her, ‘Look, they’re down right now because you’re down. You gotta fight through it. You’re a senior and I know it’s hard to have a heavy load on your back but if you’re down we’re down.’ Fortunately, for the most part, she’s been up.”
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The cumulative defensive effort has helped PikeView’s defense limit opponents to 38.8 points per game this season.
The Sissonville win, the latest in a season full of defining defensive efforts, was a moment of pride for the Panthers. Meadows in particular had her finest defensive effort of the season accepting the challenge of guarding Sissonville’s Kynna Britton, a player who came in averaging 22 points per game. Meadows held her to 12 points and just three made field goal attempts. The third was purposely yielded to avoid fouling.
It fully changed the way the Panthers approach games with Meadows coming away a changed player.
“At the beginning of the season, I really struggled offensively when Jocelyn (Hall) got hurt and had a hard time getting points and getting back in the groove of things,” Meadows said. “I realized we were without her, the second-best defender on the team, so I had to step up into a different role. Coming into the Sissonville game, I watched film after film on Kynna and she is one of the best players in the state. I’ll give it to her. And I wanted to challenge her because I mean, I know I can play defense, but I want to show everybody else that I can play defense just as well as I can play offense.
“I’m not just a one-sided player. I knew that was my challenge and I was staying on her. No matter what – she goes over to the couch, I’m going over to the couch. If she’s getting a drink of water so am I. I want people around the state to be like ‘I don’t want Riley Meadows to guard me.’ I took practice very, very, very seriously on defense the whole week preparing for Sissonville. I was like, ‘You know what, if I can do this, I can play defense on anybody.'”
Meadows’ confidence and ability will be challenged again as will the rest of the Panthers. Nitro comes in to the tournament as the No. 3 seed and has established itself as one of the better programs in Class AAA. The two teams have history, having met in the 2022 quarterfinals. PikeView won that game in overtime.
This year’s Nitro team features many different faces while most of this PikeView team played in that thriller from two years ago.
“They are guard oriented, but you gotta (Natalie) Smith who is a big force,” Raban said of Nitro. “I mean, she’s a post player but she can bring it at all three levels. So it’s gonna be a tough task for us and presents a little matchup problem because we are strictly man. And that’s our bread and butter. So I don’t want to go away from it.
“We’re gonna have to make some in-game adjustments. We’ve talked about that and maybe different lineups that see us mixing that up. Go big some, go small some. But those are adjustments that we’ll make. But we know we got a tall task with Smith. And then they have guards that are tough. They all contribute. I like some of our matchups, but I’m concerned about some of our matchups. We’ve got a challenge ahead of us but I think our girls are ready to face it and go in and give us our best shot and see what we can do.”
