The road came to an end for the Chapmanville Regional High School girls’ basketball team.

And also for Lady Tigers’ coach Ronnie Ooten.

Chapmanville’s season came to a close with Monday night’s 58-46 loss to Tug Valley in the “play-in” game of the Class AA Region 4 Section 2 Tournament at Logan High School’s Willie Akers Arena.

Ooten, the Lady Tigers’ head coach, also announced after the game that he was stepping down after nine seasons, a sectional championship (2005) and a 90-112 overall record.

No. 4 seed Chapmanville ended its season with an 8-14 record, while No. 5 Tug Valley (10-13) moved on to play No. 1 seed Scott on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the sectional semifinals. The sectional nightcap on Wednesday at Logan pits Wayne against rival Tolsia.

Ooten, who is a retired educator at Chapmanville, said the time was right to step away and let someone else lead the Lady Tigers next season and beyond.

Ooten has had mixed results as Chapmanville’s basketball coach. The high water mark was the 2004-05 season in which the Lady Tigers went 13-10, beat Scott in the sectional championship game and lost to Tolsia in the Class AA regional finals, leaving Chapmanville just one game short of its first state tournament berth since the early 1990s.

The Lady Tigers went 17-6 the following season and 14-7 in the 2006-07 campaign but Chapmanville, then led by all-state guards Kris Garrett and Kara Willis, were upset both seasons by Scott in the sectional title game.

Chapmanville slumped to a 10-13 mark last season and were six games under .500 this season.

Ooten said it wasn’t the back-to-back losing seasons which led to his decision to step away. He said his heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

“I’m not having fun. I didn’t have fun coaching this year,” Ooten said. “We’ve had a lot of picky crap this year and I’m tired of listening to it. Maybe somebody new can take these kids and do better with them.”

When Ooten took over the Lady Tigers’ basketball program in the 2000-01 season he said he had no idea he would be at the helm for so long.

“I’ve put a lot of time in it when I took this team nine years ago,” Ooten said. “I was coaching football at the time and softball and I said that I would take it for a year until they got somebody else but they never did get anybody. I don’t think I’ve done that bad of a job but I think maybe a different coach with a different philosophy might help the kids. I told myself 35 years ago when I started coaching that if I ever coached something and it isn’t fun I quit. It hasn’t been fun this year and I quit. I stayed in this longer than I probably should have.”

It looked like Chapmanville might have a good shot advancing to the sectional semifinals, particularly early in last night’s game, as the Lady Tigers led 9-4 and trailed by just one point after the first quarter, 16-15, and went into the locker room down a single point, 27-26.

But it was the tale of two halves as Tug Valley outscored Chapmanville 10-9 to take a 37-35 lead after three. It was all Lady Panthers in the fourth quarter as TVHS outscored the Lady Tigers 21-11 to notch the win.

Lydia Vance led the Lady Tigers with 14 points.

Jenna Vance and Cortney Willis tossed in eight points each. Freshman Kelli Garrett and Brittani Lowe had six each, Poppy Ramey four and Tiffini Hale two.

Last night’s game was the final prep basketball contest for Chapmanville’s three seniors — Ramey, Hale and Willis.

Tug Valley was led by Tabby Mounts, who netted a game-high 17 points and hit three 3-pointers.

Elizabeth Evans had 13 and Courtney Southers 11. Keisha Ratcliff and Katherine Endicott had seven each. Cassie Sartin added two points and Kara Sheppard one.

Tug Valley was 14-of-19 from the free throw line. Chapmanville was only 9-of-17 and just 2-of-9 down the stretch when the Lady Panthers began to pull away.

“We quit running the ball up and down the floor, then we threw it away five or six times,” Ooten said. “We should have been a little more patient with it and then we missed a ton of foul shots. When you miss that many free throws you aren’t going to beat that many people. We played hard and you can’t fault that, though. They hit their foul shots and we missed most of ours. That’s the game. We had our opportunities and I hate to go out there on a sour note but that’s part of it.”

Chapmanville trailed only by two points after three quarters and were within 40-37 with 6:59 left after Ramey drilled a 15-footer. Willis then cut it to 40-38 with a free throw at the 6:07 mark.

But then a 15-footer by Endicott and a 3 by Mounts pushed the TV lead to 45-38 with 5:25 remaining in the contest.

The Lady Tigers tried to stay in it.

A putback by Hale with 4:35 left cut it to 45-41.

Lydia Vance later made two free throws with 3:44 to go to trim the deficit to 47-42.

But then at the 3:20 mark came the turning point as Coach Ooten was whistled for a verbal technical foul. Ooten said he wasn’t even talking to the official, who ran along the sideline, then turned to give him a T.

“I was very displeased with the officiating. They were terrible. I never said a word to that guy and he T’d me,” Ooten said. “He was baiting me all night, so I would say something so he would T me. He started to then I turned away from him. I don’t like that kind of crap. They shouldn’t be showboats out there. They should just call the game. I wasn’t even talking to him. I was talking to (assistant coach) Jaci (Collins). I was telling her that we needed to get Tiffini (Hale) off of number 22 (Katherine Endicott). She was killing us. And then, boom! But he won’t call another one on me because I’m finished.”

Mounts stepped to the line and split her technical foul free throws to put Tug Valley on top 48-42.

Then with 2:30 left, Southers completed a three-point play to make it 51-42.

Lowe then missed four free throws over the span of a minute and Endicott scored a bucket at the 1:19 mark to up the lead to 53-42.

Ballgame.

The Lady Panthers then coasted the rest of the way.

For Ooten, it’s on to softball season, which begins next Monday with the first practice.

Ooten has been the Chapmanville girls’ softball coach since the program’s inception in 1983. He begins his 27th season at the helm in March.

With a load of talent back this spring, including senior all-state pitcher Andi Williamson, the Lady Tigers are expected to challenge for the Class AA state championship.

Ooten has led the Lady Tigers to three Class AA state championships in his tenure with crowns in 1999, 2004 and 2007.

Cabell Midland 60, Logan 54

HUNTINGTON – The Logan High School girls’ basketball team saw its season come to a close with Monday night’s 60-54 loss to Cabell Midland in the Class AAA Region 4 Section 2 tournament at Huntington High School.

It’s been a long season for the Lady Cats, which ended the campaign with a 4-19 record.

Counting last season’s nine-game skid to end the season Logan has lost 28 out of its last 32 contests.

Cabell Midland improved to 4-17 and is scheduled to face No. 1 seed Huntington on Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. in the sectional semifinals, also at Huntington High. Spring Valley faces Lincoln County in the other semifinal at 5:30 p.m.

The Lady Knights led Logan 17-10 after one quarter and 31-24 at the half. The Lady Cats outscored Cabell Midland 18-10 after three to take a 42-41 lead.

Cabell Midland then outscored Logan 19-12 in the fourth.

Jessica Bias led the Lady Cats with 18 points.

Katie Chryssofos had 14, Erica Kelley 12 and Leonnah Browning five. Faydra Martin and Kacie Harrison had two each and Kristian Chryssofos had one.

Brooke Bellomy led Cabell Midland with 20 points. Caitlin Smith had 16. Tied 50-50 Smith scored three late buckets to lead the Lady Knights to victory. She had 12 of her points in the fourth quarter.