High Expectations For Lady Warriors Basketball

Dunmore, WV – The Pocahontas County Lady Warriors are on the warpath again – in the hunt for a state basketball title. The Lady Warriors advanced to the state final eight last season before losing a close game to Wheeling Central Catholic.

Catholic private schools have greatly dominated the tournament brackets in West Virginia single-A sports for the last several years. But the Lady Warriors and coach Tim McClung are confident they have a team that can make it all the way this season.

McClung says the strategy is simple – outplay the opponents with aggressiveness and athleticism.

“We’re going to play real aggressive man-to-man defense, up in your face, and then we’re going to try and run the basketball up and down the floor, offensively,” he said. “That’s what our program is here. If we can do those two things, we think we’ll be pretty effective against about anybody that we play.”

The Lady Warriors are off to a 2-0 start, with dominating performances over double-A James Monroe and single-A Bath County. The coach says he noted areas to improve, despite the lopsided victories.

“We need to play a little bit better defense without fouling,” he said. “Both games, we’ve committted a lot of fouls. We’re a very aggressive team, but we need to be aggressive without making silly fouls. That’s probably the most important thing that we want to improve on, that, so far this season.”

PCHS is fortunate to have talented senior point guard Erin White back this season, who missed her junior year in basketball due to an injury. McClung says his three senior captains have what it takes to lead the team to a state title.

“Starting with Erin, she’s our starting point guard,” he said. “Erin’s very quick. She’s very tough – what I call a hard nose player. Miranda [McNabb] and Chloe [Bland] are very good shooters. They play the post. They can handle the basketball well and they move. They get up and down the floor real well. So, that’s their strengths.”

McNabb says team chemistry will be an important factor in a championship run.

“As long as we keep working hard and don’t have any drama and play as a team,” she said. “No fighting between each other and we share the ball and play together.”

White says the team has the confidence and work ethic to get back to Charleston.

“We have to come out with the thought that, ‘you’re going to win.’ and have the desire to want to want to and put in that extra that the other team doesn’t want – that the other team doesn’t have,” she said. “That extra 10-percent that they aren’t putting it out on the floor.”

Bland says the team believes they can make it to the final and prevail.

“We do – we’re very enthusiastic about it and we want to go all the way,” she said. “We have the teamwork and spirit. This is what we really want.”

This season, AMR will broadcast six Lady Warriors regular season games and all playoff games. The first broadcast begins on December 9 at 7:15 p.m., when the Lady Warriors host the Harman Panthers at the PCHS holiday tournament.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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