Gallery by Karen Akers
HINTON – The trips down the mountain to Hinton for the Shady Spring girls basketball team have been nothing short of miserable over the years.
Monday night the Lady Tigers finally earned the right to walk out of the Summers County gymnasium with a smile on their face.
Powered by 25 points from WVU Tech signee, Kierra Richmond and solid team defense, Shady Spring defeated the Lady Bobcats, 49-47.
The triumph was the first-ever win for the Lady Tigers at Summers County.
“Since I have been in the school, it hasn’t been a game. It has been 40 or 50 points,” Shady Spring head coach Brandon Bennett said. “Just to be in the game down here at Summers County is a positive sign for our program. We have been building for a while and we feel like we are getting there. Tonight was a big step for us, a huge step.”
The first eight minutes of the game set the tone for the night with the defenses causing complete havoc on both ends of the floor.
“Summers County is a heckuva defensive team. They are well coached, gritty and they get after it. They made it tough on us tonight, no doubt about that,” Bennett said.
Shady Spring led 13-12 after the first quarter and pushed the advantage to five points just two minutes into the second period.
Six straight points from Gracie Harvey and five from Liv Meador rallied the Lady Bobcats giving them a 25-25 tie. Five missed free throws in the second quarter kept Shady from owning the lead at halftime, though.
“We killed ourselves for the first three quarters at the foul line. There in the fourth quarter when it mattered, we were able to knock them down,” Bennett said. “It would have been nice to hit them earlier in the game and extend that lead, but we worked through it.”
Already playing without one starter in Sullivan Pivont due to a non-Covid related illness, Summers had to play without two more starters for a good portion of the third period when Harvey and Maggie Stover picked up their third fouls.
Down by four points inside two minutes, freshman Avery Lilly scored on a coast-to-coast drive and converted the old school 3-point play. Lilly scored again with seven seconds left in the quarter to give Summers a 37-36 lead with eight minutes to play.
“That girl is fearless and you will be seeing a lot of Avery over the next four years,” Meador said. “She accepts the challenge and not only that, she fulfills the challenge. A lot of people say they will do it, but they don’t.”
Not only did Meador need Lilly to help on the scoring end, she was also tasked the majority of the night with trying to slow down Shady’s biggest threat.
“We had to change defenses. We can’t come out and guard Richmond, she is too good. She creates space for herself and makes shots. She is legit and I have a lot of respect for her,” Meador said. “At one point in time we had a 14-year old freshman and a 15-year old freshman guarding one of the best guards in the state of West Virginia.”
While the scoring number looked big for the senior standout, Richmond had a defender in her space all night and had to earn every point she scored.
“She has grown up. She is not a high school player anymore and you could see that out there. She was getting hit on about every play and she was just taking the contact and playing through it,” Bennett said. “Then she would get up and play hard on defense. She was all over the floor.”
Summers spurted to start the final period and took it’s biggest lead of the game at five points with just under six minutes to play.
Shady answered with defense and rebounding to go on a 7-0 run, regaining the lead at 45-43.
Each time Shady would try to pull away, Meador would find her way to the basket for a score to even the game.
“She led her team tonight and she got to the rim when she needed to. She is a warrior,” coach Meador said about his daughter’s play. “Even if she is mine, I will brag on her every now and then. She played really hard.”
Meador scored her 17th point of the night inside of 30 seconds to tie the contest for the final time at 45-45.
As the clock ticked inside 10 seconds, Richmond was fouled attacking the basket and converted both free throws.
Summers had one final possession and Shady had a good idea where the ball would be going.
“Our team defense was huge. On that last possession, I told them that Meador had been killing us on that baseline drive and we would have to have some help defense,” Bennett said. “It had to be a team effort for us to stop them and win that game. That is what they did at the end. There were three people going at her. Our defense has improved with every game and we feel like tonight was the best defensive effort that we have had.”
Although Summers came up just short Monday, the effort put forth by the Lady Bobcats was not lost on the veteran coach.
“I saw a team that rose to the challenge and fought to the bitter end. They fought hard and I am proud of them,” Meador said. “It comes down to the last possession. That means collectively you are in the basketball game, but there are some things that you have to improve on. We are going to get better.”
Kellie Adkins added 10 points for Shady Spring and Braylie Wiseman scored seven. Lilly finished with 13 and Harvey added 12 for Summers.
Both teams are back in action Wednesday. Shady Spring will host Nicholas County, while Summers County will welcome defending Class AA state champion Wyoming East.
SS: 13 12 11 13 – 49
SC: 12 13 12 10 – 47
Shady Spring 49
Kierra Richmond 25, Brooklyn Gibson 2, Kellie Adkins 10, Kaylee Barnes 5, Braylie Wiseman 7. Totals: 17 11-22 49.
Summers County 47
Maggie Stover 2, Gracie Harvey 12, Avery Lilly 13, Abby Persinger 2, Liv Meador 17, Kaylee Jones 1. Totals: 19 9-12 47.
3-pointers – SS: 4 (Richmond 4); SC: None.
