The Shadow
In front of their home crowd, the Alleghany girl’s basketball team gave Covington all they could handle, but in the end, it was the Lady Cougars escaping with a 53-47 win over their county rival.
The turning point in Thursday night’s game came midway through the third quarter.
Covington had been struggling from the field most of the night and the Mountaineers, who led 21-17 at the break, were clinging to a 24-23 lead until Covington’s Sa’Mone Moore took passes from backcourt mate Autumn Phillips and drained two three pointers to give the Cougars a 29-24 lead with 3:28 to play.
Although, the Mountaineers would battle back to take the lead once more, it fired Moore up and the sophomore point guard took over.
The Mountaineers would cut their deficit to one (29-28) following a pair of Sara Church free throws, but Moore countered with two of her own to give Covington a 31-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Alleghany’s Paige Irvine knotted the game with 7:29 remaining with an old-fashioned three-point play and the score would be knotted two more times at 33 and 37.
Covington took the lead for good when Moore knocked down a foul line jumper with 4:14 to play and then added a layup on the next trip up the floor to give the Cougars a 41-37 lead.
Alleghany once again pulled within one (44-43) after Savannah Beard hit 1-of-2 at the tripe, but Covington’s Phillips split the AHS defense and drove the lane for an easy layup to increase the Cougars’ lead to three.
Beard countered with a baseline jumper with 1:10 to play to make the score 46-45, but Moore struck again, taking a pass from Mary Woodson and converting a three-point play after being fouled on her layup attempt.
That gave Covington a 49-45 lead with 52 seconds to play and the sophomore added a pair of free throws 15 seconds later to extend Covington’s lead to six, 51-45.
Beard snagged an offensive rebound and dished to Beth Mason for an easy two with 22 seconds to play, but Moore stroked two more free throws with 13 ticks left on the clock to seal the 53-47 win for the Lady Cougars.
“Sa’Mone just took over,” said CHS coach Mark Pifer. “She is a pretty cool customer to be just a sophomore. She’s as good mentally as she is physically. Tonight, she just willed us to win.”
“The free throw line got us again tonight. It’s been our weakness all season long,” said Alleghany coach Danny Keene. “I couldn’t be any happier with the effort though. My girls played their hearts out.
“Effort, that is the one word that never comes up in our locker room discussions because these girls play hard every time they step on the court,” added Keene. “They make coaching fun when it’s like that. This is a fun group of girls to coach.”
The stats were evident of just how close this match up was with both teams shooting 35 percent from the field and finishing deadlocked on the boards, 29-29. Covington had 27 turnovers to Alleghany’s 24 and 21 fouls to Alleghany’s 20.
Moore led the Lady Cougars with a game-high 33 points – 16 in the fourth quarter and 26 in the second half – and added eight rebounds, while Woodson finished with eight.
Leteashia Clarke added seven points and a game-high 15 rebounds and Phillips rounded out the CHS scoring with five points.
Irvine led a trio of Mountaineers in double figures with 12 points, while Kayla Buchanan and Mason added 10 points each. Kelsey Brown added six, Beard had five and Church rounded out the Alleghany scoring with four points to go along with seven rebounds. Analea Deeds led AHS with nine rebounds.
“I’ve seen Alleghany probably four times this year and they get better every time I see them,” Pifer added. “My hat is off to those girls.”
Alleghany (3-6) will be back in action Monday on the road at Glenvar. Action begins at 6 p.m. with the junior varsity game.
Covington (5-6) returns to the court Tuesday when they open Pioneer District play at home against the Craig County Rockets. Action tips off at 6 p.m. with the junior varsity game.
The Alleghany junior varsity team opened the night with a 45-22 win over the Covington jayvees.
Karleigh Thompson led AHS with 14 points, while Cristen Walton added 12. Allison Williams finished with six, Santana Unroe had four and Keri Simmons, Darien Nagel, Emily Oyler and Courtney Gillespie added two points each.
India Green rounded out the AHS scoring with one point.
Sisters Kourtney and Kathy Tyson led the Covington with six points each, while Shalia Notice added four. Syndall Moats chipped in three, Deena Hawkins added two and Abbie Zamana rounded out the CHS scoring with one point.
