Summers County Girls
Summers County Girls
Lady Bobcats will lean on depth , experience
By Gary Fauber the register-herald
Among the many cliches that make their way around the sports world , “ it ’ s hard to beat a team three times in one season ” seems to be the one that bites teams most often .
It happened to Summers County last season . The Bobcats defeated Chapmanville twice in the regular season , by a combined 10 points . The Tigers then got the ultimate revenge , erasing those two games with a 62-34 co-final victory that sent them to the state tournament and ended the Bobcats ’ season .
“ We just didn ’ t play well ,” said Rick Blevins , a Summers County basketball veteran in his second season as the high school team ’ s head coach . “ We had beaten Chapmanville both times in the regular season , and they just weren ’ t having it , especially on their home court . It was a rough night for us . We couldn ’ t make a shot , they couldn ’ t miss a shot . I think they probably made more 3s in the first quarter of that game than they made in both games in the regular season combined ? But somebody has to win and somebody has to lose . Hopefully next time it won ’ t be us that has to lose .”
It won ’ t happen again in the sense of the opponent — Chapmanville has moved up to Class AAA while Summers remains in double-A in the latest round of reclassification . But the Bobcats have plenty of talent on a deep roster to be able to get back over that hump . They will have to
Jenny Harnish / The Register-Herald
Summers County ’ s Abby Persinger tries to get around Greenbrier West ’ s Lacey Walker during the game in Hinton .
overcome the loss of Gracie Harvey , a career 1,000-point scorer and second-team all-stater who went on to sign with Southwest Virginia Community College . She and fellow graduate Kaylee Jones gave the Bobcats a strong presence under the basket .
“ They ’ re both big losses , but we ’ ve got a lot of nice kids , big kids coming back ,” Blevins said .
There is a strong senior influence on the roster , with Cheyenne Smith , Avery Lilly , Abby Persinger and Melania Hayes returning . Joining them are Allie Lambert and first-year player Alexis Wade-Adkins .
Junior Kaylee Cole and sophomore Jaelynn Boone are also expected to play huge roles .
“ All those kids are going to contribute big time for us , and we have high hopes for a couple of our freshmen ,” Blevins said .
Those freshmen include Carly Persinger , Alicia Persinger , Arnasia Fullen , Aleshia Clark and Kenleigh Ellison .
Boone made a big impact as a freshman last season .
“ At the end of the year she started probably the last 15 or 20 games for us ,” Blevins said . “ So she ’ s had a lot of experience . She ’ s been thrown into the fire , so we ’ re expecting big things from her again .
“ Hadley Bennett and Kaylee Cole played a lot for us last year ( as sophomores ) as well . So those kids have seen a lot of varsity action .
“ Carly Persinger is an interesting player for us . She ’ s pretty tall , pretty athletic , can do a lot of stuff . She played with us all summer , and she ’ s going to be a big contributor this year as well .
“ We have about nine , 10 , maybe 11 kids who can probably play in a varsity basketball game .”
It ’ s because of that depth that Blevins doesn ’ t commit to a complete starting lineup .
“ I know that Cheyenne Smith , Avery Lilly and Abby Persinger are going to start for us ,” Blevins said . “ The other ones are going to be some combination of Melania Hayes , Hadley Bennett , Kaylee Cole , Jaelynn Boone , Carly Persinger . I ’ m not how it ’ s going to pan out yet , but those five kids right there are definitely in the mix . I think all of them will play a lot for us . I ’ m hoping it ’ s a situation where it doesn ’ t really matter who starts , that we can just plug them in as we need them and everything just keeps going .”
Email : gfauber @ register-herald . com
WV SOUTH BASKETBALL • 45