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November 30, 2012

PikeView girls' hoops team building new leaders

By JONATHAN GREENE Princeton Times

GARDNER — The PikeView girls basketball team is coming off a season of new highs after reaching the WVSSAC state tournament for a second straight year, advancing to the state semifinals for the first time and ending rival Summers County’s run of 26 straight sectional championships.

The Lady Panthers will head into this season without four starters from last year’s 18-10 squad and a fifth who saw plenty of action. Gone are Danielle Compton, Sam Wood, Jen Taylor, Lauren White and Haley Sabin and in their place is a roster of 12 players — 11 underclassmen.

“It’s pretty tough,” veteran PikeView coach Karen Miller said of replacing those seniors. “When you look at the scoring they produced, the girls we have this year are going to have to step up. We’re an inexperienced team.

“We only have one starter returning — Hope Nester. I’m not sure how much she’ll play the month of December because of the surgery she had in the summer.

Nester has been a key piece of PikeView’s success the past two years. The junior has started at point guard and been one the leading scorers each season. Nester had MCL-ACL surgery over the summer and missed all of soccer in the fall.

“I expect her to be leader on the court,” Miller said. “I also expect her to help the younger girls and the team gel. If we can gel as a team, I think we’ll be okay. We’re going to have to rely on our defense and rely on our quickness.”

Nester will be limited in December as Miller will watch her play particularly close since she’s only several months removed from the surgery.

The Panthers’ only senior is Laura Hill and she will join Nester in the starting line-up. The 5-foot-9 guard played significant minutes last season including several starts. “We’ll be asking her for leadership as well,” Miller said. “She saw a lot of time last year. Her best asset is her defense.”

Rounding out the backcourt will be 5-foot-10 junior Alexis May. “She’s got size and she’s got quickness,” Miller commented. “She doesn’t have much experience on the varsity level, but we’re expecting a lot from her.”

Two sophomores will man the post in Lyndsey Hatfield and Courtney White.

Hatfield started several games last year and had her first career start against Princeton.

Miller said, “She’s excited. She had a good summer. We’re looking for her to help produce.”

White is another who put in time over the summer according Miller. “She’s really improved her inside game,” Miller added. “She got some time on the varsity level last year. Hopefully, she can have a good year.”

PikeView will have a lot of depth coming off the bench in junior guard Bethany Bryant, sophomore guards Crysta Meekins and Lauren Hatfield and freshman Madison May.

“It just depends on what we need,” Miller said of who will be called upon first.

The 5-foot-11 May will split time between junior varsity and varsity, but can play nearly any position on the court according to Miller.

“She’ll split time. She could probably play four positions,” Miller said. “In middle school, she was a point guard so she had to handle the ball, but she keeps growing.”

Three others could also see action - junior post Savanah Runion and sophomores Katelyn Shrewsbury and Katelyn Odle.

“Our goal is to get better everyday in practice and improve throughout the season and peak at the right time,” Miller said. “We have to take it one step at a time when you’re young and playing a lot of experienced teams.”

The Lady Panthers were ranked fifth in the AA Coaches Preseason Poll. Westside was first, Bridgeport second, Scott third and Robert C. Byrd fourth.

“It makes us feel good that coaches think a lot about our program,” Miller said. “Hopefully, this will inspire our girls to work hard and go out and show teams who we are. There are a lot of good teams in AA including several who have moved down from AAA this year.”

PikeView has games scheduled against five of the top ten teams in AA - Westside, Scott, Lincoln County, Summers County and Nicholas County. They also play several top AAA teams including Spring Valley (No. 4), Princeton (No. 8) and Woodrow Wilson (No. 11),

“To me, you want to play a tough schedule to help the team for postseason play,” Miller said. “Playing a light schedule, won’t help you, but playing a tough schedule like we’re playing will tremendously help our team. There really is no easy game on our schedule.”

The Panthers open the season Monday at Shady Spring before traveling to Westside on December 6.

“The girls are looking forward to the season,” Miller commented. “They’ve worked hard and put a lot of time in over the summer. We’ve had a lot of success in the fall with our cross country girls going upstate, our volleyball going upstate and our soccer team.

“I have a lot of girls that have an experience in state appearance, we’re hoping if things going are our way we can get there. It’s going to take a lot of work. We have to improve every day and every game. It’s going to be tough with the schedule we have and that’s what you want.”

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