Wyoming East sends Lady Tigers home in regional final, 54-47

In front of an energetic and packed house, the two squads went back and forth in the early-going.

The Lady Warriors led 13-9 with 3:09 left in the quarter and then 16-11 after one period thanks to a hoop-and-harm score from Abi Baker with 1:10 left in the frame.

Wyoming East built their lead to 19-13 early in the second, but a 9-2 Chapmanville run followed and was capped off by a floater from Haley Fleming with 3:57 left in the first half.

Abby Russell buried a three to put the Lady Warriors ahead 24-22 with 1:22 remaining until the break, but two buckets from Alaira Evans and a foul shot from Jaiden Mahon sparked a 5-0 CRHS run and gave the Lady Tigers a 27-24 advantage going into the locker room.

Brooke Christian hit a trey to give Chapmanville a five point lead at 32-27 with 4:58 left in the third quarter, but back-to-back threes from Russell put Wyoming East back in command at 33-32 at the 2:47 mark.

Evans converted a layup to put the Lady Tigers in front 34-33 with 2:18 left in the stanza, but a 4-0 run and a 38-34 Wyoming East lead with ensued. However, Christian drilled another shot from downtown for Chapmanville to make it a 38-37 game heading into the final quarter.

Coach Kristina Gore’s Lady Tigers held a 43-39 lead with 5:!5 left in the game, but the Lady Warriors went on a 7-0 run and led 46-43 with 3:57 left after a layup by Maddie Clark which forced Gore to call timeout.

Evans scored on a putback layup to reduce Chapmanville’s deficit to just one point at 48-47 with 2:48 remaining in the contest, but the Lady Tigers never scored again.

Two late turnovers by CRHS sealed their own fate as Wyoming East went on a 6-0 run to end the game and won the regional title by a final count of 54-47.

Evans scored 19 points to lead the way for Chapmanville with two steals and two rebounds. Christian had nine points all via three-pointers and added three steals and two boards. Fleming added seven points to go with five assists, two rebounds and two steals.

Mahon scored five points with 10 rebounds and two blocks, Chloe Thompson contributed four points with two rebounds, an assist and a block, and Jaycee Blair tacked on three points along with five boards, two blocks and an assist.

After the game, Gore said she felt like this was the AA state championship game. She gave kudos to Wyoming East and said she thought they would run the table and win it all.

“I’m proud of my team,” Gore said. “We had a group out there that hadn’t been in this situation before, so we have to take it as a valuable learning experience and doing everything we can to run it back next year. We played Wyoming East in two regional championships prior to this and we gave them everything they wanted tonight.”

Gore then went on to talk about the resiliency of her players as well as the belief in each other that everyone on the team possesses.

“At the end of the day, I’m proud of this team,” Gore said. “We’ve had some adversity come our way this season, but they really rally hard. The belief they have in each other and the belief that I have in them, we just have to stay patient and stay the course to know that our time’s coming.”

As the Lady Tigers head into the offseason, Gore says three things are key: Growth, maturity, and learning from the moment.

She then talked more about what her players’ mindset must be now that the offseason is under way.

“We talked about in the locker room, hey, we have to stay in the moment and we can’t worry about an outcome that hasn’t happened yet,” Gore said. “That’s the lesson. Just continue to grow. Continue to believe in each other. Have faith. Take care of each other this offseason. We have to be ready to get to work this offseason to show everybody that we’re a state tournament team.”