It took the Covington girls basketball program 27 years to beat Alleghany two times.
Now they’ve done it twice in a week.
Shanice Laws led the Cougars with 18 points and 12 rebounds and the Covington defense limited Alleghany to just six field goals in the entire game en route to a 49-28 win over the Mountaineers.
“It was ugly at times but sometimes maybe the uglier it is the better we are,” said Covington coach Mark Pifer. “The one thing you can’t fault with us is – we play hard. That hasn’t always been the case, but we are playing extremely hard.”
Both teams struggled from the field with the Cougars connecting on 17 of 62 attempts (27 percent) and the Mountaineers shooting just 6 of 52 (11 percent), including going one for 38 in the second half.
Covington also outrebounded their hosts 50-32 with 22 of those being offensive rebounds.
Buckets by Laws and Autumn Phillips spotted the Lady Cougars an early 4-0 lead with 6:36 left in the opening stanza.
The Mountaineers rebounded with their only offensive surge of the night to take a brief 6-4 lead.
Esther Allman dished to Kristen Rose for a layup to get Alleghany on the board and Grace Parker and Allman both hit runners in the lane on consecutive possessions to give the Mountaineers a 6-4 lead with 3:06 left in the first quarter.
A minute later, a Laws steal and layup knotted the score and Cathryn Roe’s layup with 1:49 gave Covington an 8-6 lead.
The Lady Cougars never looked back.
Covington scored the next six of eight points to take a 12-8 advantage after the first quarter.
The Lady Mountaineers made four of their six field goals in the first quarter and the Covington defense limited Alleghany to just two buckets over the final 24 minutes.
Laws steal and layup followed by a dish to Woodson gave Covington a 16-8 lead with 6:39 remaining in the first half. Alissa Morgan’s dish to Kasey McAllister for foul-line jumper with 2:12 left was Alleghany’s lone field goal of the quarter and brought the Mounties to within six (17-11).
Four straight points from Nakayla Moore increased Covington’s lead to 21-11 and the Lady Cougars took a 22-13 lead into the locker room at the half.
A Daylin Tyree jumper opened the third quarter scoring and pushed the Cougars’ lead to 24-13. Laws dished to Moore for a short jumper in the lane gave Covington a 26-16 lead before Allman’s layup with 5:17 left in the third quarter made the score 26-18.
That would be Alleghany’s final bucket of the game as they would only make 10 free throws over the final 13 minutes, 17 seconds remaining.
Laws stickback with 2:56 left in the third increased Covington’s lead to 30-20 and another Laws stickback a minute later made the score 33-20.
Covington led 33-22 with less that 15 seconds in the third before Roe knocked down a three-ball from the top of the key to give Covington a 36-22 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Laws went coast-to-coast to give Covington a 40-25 lead with 5:20 left to play and her three-pointer from the wing made the score 43-26 with 3:27 remaining.
A pair of free throws by Grace Parker cut Alleghany’s margin to 43-28 but a three-point play from Laws and a free throw by Phillips gave Covington a 47-28 lead.
Amanda Byer’s foul-line jumper with 48 seconds left to play gave the Lady Cougars a 49-28 lead as they cruised to the non-district win over rival Alleghany.
“We don’t do all the right things all the time but playing hard will take care of all that,” said Pifer. “Mary Woodson hurt her ankle pretty bad tonight but she toughed it up and attempted to get back on the floor.
She just wasn’t moving very well but I give her props, she knew how important this game was for our program.
“This is not an easy place to come play,” added Pifer. “I knew they would be ready just because of the atmosphere. They’re going to get better.
They’re a young team as well as us and I know they are going to get better. I’ve got great friends over there and I wish them nothing but the best of luck the rest of the season.”
Moore added six points and led the Cougars with 13 rebounds, while Phillips finished with six points and six boards.
Allman led Alleghany with nine points, while Parker and Paige Irvine had five points each.
Alleghany (1-3) will be back in action Friday when they go on the road to take on Parry McCluer. Action starts at 6 p.m. with the junior varsity game.
Covington (3-0) gets a week of rest to get their legs back under them before traveling to Grace Christian next Thursday. Junior varsity action starts at 6 p.m.