Greater Beckley Christian Girls
Greater Beckley Christian Girls
Crusaders looking to continue rebuild
By Gary Fauber the register-herald
The rebuild of the Greater Beckley Christian girls basketball program continues .
Lane Acord is in for his second year as the head coach , moving forward with his plans to get things turned around . He doesn ’ t expect it to happen overnight , but is confident that the future holds good things .
“ We ended up winning three games last year ,” Acord said . “( It was ) kind of a rebuilding , and kind of still rebuilding a little bit this year . Our middle school program kind of will start feeding into us a little bit next year .”
With a roster of six , the numbers are still not on the Crusaders ’ side . They will have to overcome the loss of seniors Emerson Young ( 13.1 rebounds ), Olivia Price and Lilly Tyree .
“ We ’ ve only got six players , but , man , we ’ ve got a good six ,” Acord said .
Leading the way is Leah Adkins . The sophomore point guard was the Crusaders ’ leading scorer during a 3-14 campaign , averaging 15.6 points per game . She was recognized as a second-team Christian schools all-stater . she was the one that she was our point guard last year . She was , she was second team all state last year , she , I think she was the top 10 in scoring . Also did a lot of good things for us . “ We asked a lot of her ,” Acord said . “ She handled the ball . We asked her to score for us . We asked a lot of things of her as a freshman last year . I thought she stepped up and handled it very well . We saw a lot of maturity out of her this summer and and we ’ re hoping that growth over the summer ,
Tina Laney / For The Register-Herald
Leah Adkins of Greater Beckley Christian goes for the basket against Victory Baptist .
we ’ re hoping that she could pick up where she left off ,”
Another sophomore back is Aislynn Pelfrey . She was Greater Beckley ’ s second-leading scorer at 5.9 ppg .
“ Scrappy guard ,” Acord said of Pelfrey . “ A streaky shooter , but she worked a whole lot this summer , and so far in practice has been one of our really bright spots as far as shooting the ball . She ’ s really shooting the ball really well and is a really good defender . She ’ s a spark plug . She gets after it , and she ’ s the one that kind of gets us rolling a little bit .”
Acord îs excited about the addition of sisters Braelyn Farrish and Destyni Farrish , who transferred in from Summers County . Braelyn is a junior and Destyni a freshman . “ They are two super good kids and hard workers ,” Acord said . “ Both of them play out on the perimeter . Both of them can shoot and handle the ball , and their basketball IQ is really high . Summers County always has a good program .”
Sophomore Kaileigh Price returns and will round out the starting lineup . She started every game last season .
“ She ’ s going to be our 5 ,” Acord said with a laugh , pointing out the Crusaders will be at a height disadvantage .
“ She does a lot of really good things . She boxes out really well . She listens really well . She ’ s kind of one of those ones that is not super athletic , but she ’ s in the right spot at the right time . She doesn ’ t overdo things and it kind of works for her .”
Completing the roster is junior Emma Wilkerson .
“ She ’ s another one that will come in give us a little bit of post play , but she also can shoot some 3s ,” Acord said . “ She ’ s a softball player here at Greater Beckley , so she ’ s a good athlete . She does a lot of good things .”
With a guard-heavy team , the Crusaders will have to find ways to overcome their size disadvantage .
“ We ’ re going to be really small , and we ’ re going to have some matchup problems as far as our height ,” Acord said . “ But on the offensive end of it I think we ’ re going to give people matchup problems because we ’ re going to have four guards on the floor that can shoot the ball and that can hit you off the dribble and stuff . So it ’ s kind of a give-andtake kind of thing .”
WV SOUTH BASKETBALL • 7