PCHS Warrior Boys Compete In Greenbrier Shootout

Lewisburg, WV – On July first, the Pocahontas County High School boy’s basketball team traveled south to Greenbrier County to compete in a one day tournament with four other teams in the area. Along with Greenbrier West, Greenbrier East, Meadowbridge, and Scott High School, the Warriors looked to push and test themselves in three games back-to-back-to-back. Going into the Greenbrier Shootout, senior leader Lakota Jonese didn’t know what to expect out of the team.

“I wasn’t quite sure,” says Jonese, “about how we were going to match-up against some of the teams because we have a lot of seniors but not a lot of them have played varsity.”

The team went out and performed well, playing three games with two twenty minute halves and ten minutes between the games. The Warriors defeated Meadowbridge by 25, loss to AA Scott High School by eight, and beat Greenbrier West by 39. Junior Jed Sheets said that shooting the ball was, and will be, the key against teams that are bigger.

“We shot the ball well,” says Sheets. “We’re not too tall so the biggest thing is trying to get rebounds and work the ball down low if we can.”

It was that shooting that allowed the Warriors to win two games by an average of 32 points. Scott High School, a team expected to go far this year, posed as a problem for the undersized Warriors. Jonese explains that even though the team doesn’t have height, they play a style that allowed them to compete against Scott, much the same way they’re going to have to do against physically imposing teams in the future.

“They had some 6’5, 6’6 guys,” says Jonese. “In man defense we worked around the front of them to defend the passing lanes. In the zone we kept an eye on them around the dead spots.”

Jonese also says that playing in a tournament like this during the off-season gives the team an idea of what they have going into the season.

“Let’s you know what to work on individually,” says Jonese, “as well as working on things as a team. We saw we need to work on rebounding and a post-game.”

And Sheets likes the potential the team has.

“A lot of teams lost seniors,” says Sheets. “We didn’t so we think we can be pretty good this year.”