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December 28, 2012

Panthers prepare to prowl

By Jonathan Greene Princeton Times

GARDNER — Since their last game, the PikeView Panthers will have had over two weeks off before playing another opponent.
A week-long break became 17 days after snow postponed the Shady Spring tournament from Dec. 21-22 to Jan. 2 and 5.
“It’s yet to be determined because we haven’t played a game so we don’t know how we’ll respond,” PikeView head coach Lindsay Jones said of the extra practice time. “After the first two losses, we really lost focus in that next practice. It took us a couple of practices to get refocused.
“We really had to challenge the kids in practice and practice better.”
The Panthers played Mount View in the opener of the Chapmanville Holiday Tournament Thursday before concluding the tournament Friday. Chapmanville and Man are also in the tournament.
“We just plan on getting better and improving on our weaknesses,” Jones said. “Make our strengths stronger. We’re hoping that we move the ball better on offense and keep working on our team defenses.”
PikeView opened the season with two tough match-ups against traditional powers Wyoming East and Bluefield.
The Warriors pulled away for an 87-58 win while the Beavers won 67-38.
“They don’t have quit in them,” Jones commented. “They work hard throughout the game. Even though the last two games were not favorable for us, they kids never stopped playing hard which is always a positive.”
The two losses confirmed several areas the team needs to work on according to Jones. He added, “We have a better feeling. We kind knew what our weaknesses were coming in through camp.”
Logan McKinney, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, leads the team in scoring with 9.5 points per game. Zach Meadows, a 6-foot-5 junior, scored 19 points in their opener against Wyoming East.
“We really challenged them with offensive rebounding,” Jones said. “They’re working on that and trying to get better at that.”
Sophomore point guard Jason Weitzel has been solid in the first two games with nine points in each.
“We’re going to try to run some more sets for him,” Jones added. “He’s a decent shooter, but he’s so important in setting up our offense that he doesn’t get the shots we would like for him to get. We’re going to focus more on getting him a couple more shots.”
The Panthers’ bench has been a pleasant surprise Jones said. Before the start of the season, PikeView expected to use an eight-man rotation, but the play of Takota Bailey and Tyler Robinson along with Seth Wood, Austin Cordell and Bradley Flinchum may have changed that.
“We’ve been really impressed with our bench,” Jones said. “They’ve all really stepped up. It’s been their effort. They really give a lot of effort and they’re trying to work hard to get into the rotation. We’ve really been impressed with all five.”
•••
The PikeView girls are off to a 2-3 start thanks to a difficult early season schedule.
The Lady Panthers have wins over Shady Spring and Lincoln County, but have losses to top-10 ranked AAA teams Princeton and Spring Valley and defending AA champion Westside.
PikeView visits Nicholas County, another top 10 team in AA, on Friday. The Grizzles are 6-1 and coming off a 52-43 victory over Bluefield.
The Lady Panthers still have games against perennial AA powers Summers County and Scott along with two match-ups against Woodrow Wilson and another showdown with Westside.

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