The Shadow
It’s been a long time coming.
Fifteen years to be exact!
But the monkey is off the back of the Lady Cougars as they knocked off the Alleghany Mountaineers, 46-36, in the season opener for both teams Wednesday night at the Cougar Den.
It was the Lady Cougars first win over their county rival since 1994. Covington beat Alleghany, 55-48, in the season opener that year but Alleghany rebounded to win the second battle, 48-46.
Sophomore sensation Shanice Laws scored 16 of her game-high 23 points in the second half as the Cougars erased a two-point halftime deficit en route to the big win.
“Huge win,” said Covington coach Mark Pifer. “These girls believed they could win and in this type of game that is only half the battle. I’m very proud of those girls. They gave it their all and that’s all I can ask of them.”
“They turned up the intensity when Esther Allman was off the floor due to foul trouble,” said Alleghany coach Danny Keene. “We thought Esther had two fouls and she had three and that’s my fault for not checking the book but we’re a different team with Esther out on the floor.”
Things were pretty even throughout the first half.
A Laws offensive rebound and stickback got the scoring started two minutes into the game and she added a free throw a minute later to spot the Lady Cougars an early 3-0 lead.
Nakayla Moore’s offensive stickback increased Covington’s lead to 5-0. After going scorless for the game’s first five minutes, Allman got the Lady Mountaineers on the board with a jumper. Kristen Rose added a perimeter jumper the next trip down the floor and Alleghany was to within one (5-4).
Alleghany trailed 7-6 with 1:43 to play in the opening stanza following an Allman midrange jump shot but Laws added a steal and layup with :36 seconds remaining to close the first quarter scoring and give Covington a 9-6 lead.
Allman’s perimeter jumper with 6:53 left in the first half cut the Cougars’ lead to 9-8. A Laws bucket pushed the Cougars’ lead back to 11-8 but an Allman offensive stickback coupled with a free throw from Alissa Morgan knotted the score at 11 with 4:28 showing on the second quarter clock.
The score was knotted at 13 with 3:43 left in the half before Mindy Gillispie’s steal and layup gave the Mountaineers their first lead of the night, 15-13.
Covington freshman point guard Autumn Phillips canned a pair of free throws and went coast-to-coast on back-to-back possessions to give the Lady Cougars a 17-15 lead.
The Lady Mounties would close the quarter with four points on a Kasey McAllister foul-line jumper to knot the game at 17 and took the lead with 10 seconds to play in the half on Allisha Ayers’ layup off an assist from Kirsten Burton.
A Gillispie offensive rebound and stickback coupled with a free throw from Grace Parker gave Alleghany its biggest lead of the night (22-17) to open the third quarter.
Momentum shift.
Phillips’ foul-line jumper brought the Cougars to within three (22-19) and sparked the start of a 12-0 run by the Lady Cougars.
Laws followed Phillips’ jumper with a foul-line jumper, a jumper in the lane, a perimeter jumper, a steal-and-layup followed by a free throw to cap the three-point play and tacked on another free throw to cap the run and give the Lady Cougars a 29-22 lead.
A Gillispie layup with 2:36 left in the third was Alleghany’s first basket since Parker’s free throw with 6:48 to play in the quarter and brought the Mountaineers to within five (29-24).
A Phillips’ free throw with 1:00 to go in the quarter gave Covington a 32-24 lead but McAllister made a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left in the quarter to pull the Mounties to within six (32-26) heading into the final eight minutes.
Moore scored off a dish from Laws to open the fourth quarter and Phillips followed with a dish to Daylin Tyree for the perimeter jumper to give Covington a 36-26 lead with 6:54 left to play.
Allman made four consecutive free throws to cut the Cougars’ lead to 36-30 but Laws went coast-to-coast and added pair of free throws to make the score 40-30 with 3:59 remaining.
Mariana Keener made 1-of-2 from the charity stripe to make the score 40-31 but the Cougars would score the game’s next five points to take their biggest lead of the night, 45-31, with 1:08 left in the game.
Alleghany would score five points down the stretch but the Cougars added a free throw to push the lead to double digits as they held on for the 46-36 win.
“It’s been a long time,” said Pifer. “I can’t describe how happy I am for those girls. There’s a lot of girls that played a lot of minutes for us and I know they are tired. . . . But I don’t think they would trade it for anything.
“I thought Shanice started being Shanice in the second half and started doing what she could and that is get to the basket,” added Pifer. “She creates space for herself on the floor and she had a great game. Autumn Phillips had a great game for us at the point for her first career varsity start. She’s going to be key for us down the road.”
Phillips backed Laws’ 23 points with a 10-point, seven rebound night in her debut. Nakayla Moore added eight points and nine boards for the Cougars, while Mary Woodson also grabbed nine rebounds.
Allman led the Lady Mountaineers with 10 points, while Gillispie finished with eight points and added nine rebounds.
“Strong teams get up from setbacks,” said Keene. “I teach that and I believe in that. People get knocked down and they get back up. We’ll be back at practice at six o’clock tomorrow night and we’re going to get after it and we’re going to be alright.”
Alleghany (0-1) has a night to rebound from the loss before playing host to the Glenvar Highlanders in their home opener Friday night at Mountaineer Gym. Action starts at 6 p.m. with the junior varsity game.
Covington (1-0) is not back in action until Monday when they hit the road to take on the Eastern Montgomery Mustangs. Action starts at 6 p.m. with the JV game.
The Alleghany junior varsity opened the night with a 32-25 win over the Covington jayvees.
