After a historic season for the Alleghany Lady Mountaineers (1-0) basketball team, the team began its quest to head back to the state tournament following a 51-12 season opening road victory over cross-town rival, the Covington Lady Cougars (0-1) on Monday night.
Following a 17-8 season last year in which the team reached the Three Rivers District (TRD) championship game and state tournament for the first time in program history last season, the lady Mountaineers are right back where they want to be following their season opening win.
With 7:34 left in the first quarter and just 26 seconds into the game, junior guard, Macyn Cash scored the seasons and games first points as she drained one of her four three-pointers. The Mountaineers would not look back and even went on a 21-2 scoring run. Cash’s three-pointer was a result of a great defense block from Abbie Fridley who had two in the game and was followed by a fast-break that led to the Cash three-pointer which was assisted by Zamera Hayslett.
Led by Cash and senior Kendell Keene, the duo combined for 31 points in the Mountaineers win on Monday. Keene put in a game-high 17 points with 15 of those points coming off of five three pointers. Meanwhile, Cash dropped in 14 points, along with her four made three-pointers. The Mountaineers finished the game with 10 total three-pointers made.
Keene and Cash are two of the three players who averaged double figures scoring last season for the Mountaineers. The other, Erin Harden, graduated and currently plays for Ferrum College.
Bryce Leitch, was also in double figures scoring for the Mountaineers with 10 points, while also bringing down a game-high seven rebounds.
The Mountaineers led 39-4 at the end of the first half.
For the Cougars, they were led by Lauren Bragg and Alexus Wall, who provided all the scoring for the team in their season opening loss to the Mountaineers. Bragg finished with a team-high seven points, while Wall provided five points.
It’s an 0-1 start to their young season for the Cougars, who are coming off a season that started out rough as they lost their first seven games, however they finished off the season with a 9-16 overall record which included a trip to the Class 1 Region C tournament where they fell to Auburn in the first round.
Bragg who averaged nearly a double-double last season with just over nine points a game and over 10 rebounds will be looked to lead the way the rest of the season for the Cougars as the team is without the their leading scorer from last season, Cristi Persinger. Persinger graduated this past Spring and now currently plays for the Mountain Gateway Community College Lady Roadrunners. She averaged over 13 points a game.
The Mountaineers are back on the court tomorrow as they head to Roanoke to take on the Roanoke Catholic Celtics. Meanwhile, the Cougars host Riverheads this evening.
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GIRLS BASKETBALL VARSITY
Team 1 2 3 4 Final
AHS 21 18 12 0 51
CHS 4 0 4 4 12
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