The Shadow
ELLISTON — The Radford Bobcats were purring on all cylinders.
Radford found the confines of the Eastern Montgomery gym to their liking Friday night, shooting 52 percent from the field in downing the Covington Cougars 79-69 for the Western Gate Conference 45 girls basketball championship.
Jada Penn led the Bobcats with 25 points, while Riley Harvey added 23 and Julia Hopkins scored 18.
With the win, Radford will host Galax Tuesday night. Meanwhile, the Cougars will hit the road for 22-1 Chilhowie, also on Tuesday.
“We couldn’t get stops,” said Covington coach Mark Pifer. “Give them credit, they had a great night shooting the basketball.”
Freshman Kayla Campbell scored 24 points to pace the Cougars, while Leteashia Clarke added 19 points and 15 rebounds.
Dogged by the Bobcats’ box-and-1 defense, Sa’Mone Moore was limited to 10 points and only took 10 shots from the floor.
“They weren’t going to let Sa’Mone beat them offensively,” Pifer said. “But I thought she was able to get the ball in the other girls hands in some pretty good spots,” Pifer said. “Offense wasn’t our problem. We win most games scoring 69 points.”
A back-and-forth first half got away from the Cougars just a little before intermission.
Tied at 35 after a Campbell bucket, the Bobcats ran off seven straight points to lead 42-35.
A single Moore free throw capped the first-half scoring and cut Radford’s lead at the half to 42-36.
A Penn jumper from the right corner late in the third quarter gave the Bobcats their first double-digit lead at 60-50, and a Shannon Mitchell basket increased the Radford lead to a dozen after three, 62-50.
Mitchell and Hopkins baskets to open the final period increased the Radford lead to 67-50, and they enjoyed their biggest lead of the night a little later on a steal and layup by Penn that gave them a 72-54 lead — their largest lead of the night.
The Cougars cut it back to 72-60 on a Campbell 3-ball and a conventional three-point play by Brittany Keyser.
They then cut it back to nine twice in the final minutes of the game, but that was as close as they would get.
“Certainly it’s a disappointing loss,” Pifer said. “But it doesn’t send us home. We have to buckle up and go at it again. I don’t think this bunch is ready to quit. I’m sure of that.”
The loss snapped a 13-game Covington winning streak that dated back to December. The Cougars are now 19-5 on the season.
Tuesday’s matchup will begin at 7 p.m. and features a pair of 2,000-point scorers — Moore and Danielle Catron of Chilhowie, who has signed with Concord University.
In Wednesday’s semifinals, the Cougars cruised past Narrows 56-23.
Moore had 15 of her game-high 23 points in the first half, including a 35-foot, buzzer-beater to send Covington to intermission with a 29-9 lead.
Clarke added 10 points, eight rebounds, four assists and six blocks for the winners, while Campbell scored seven.
Tiffany Perdue had eight points for the Green Wave, who ended the season with a record of 9-12.
