Warriors defeat Wildcats At Night Of Champions

Elkins, West Virginia – Warriors take fifth place at PVC Night of Champions

Miranda McNabb wins 2012 PVC 3-Point “Top Gun” Shoot-Out

The PCHS boys played for fifth place Saturday, February 18, at the 2012 Potomac Valley Conference (PVC) boys Night of Champions (NOC) and beat Pendleton County for the third time this season 60-44. Pendleton hung around for three quarters, and was only down by three points, 40-43 going into the final quarter. The Warriors dominated in the fourth frame, 17-4, to up their record to 11-9 and are on a six-game winning streak, while Pendleton dropped to 5-14.

There are eight seniors on the 11-player Warrior roster. Five seniors scored in the game, and Dillon Kelley was high scorer with 21 points, four threes and seven rebounds. Among all West Virginia teams in all classes who report their stats to MaxPreps.com, the PCHS boys are now #1 in three-points shooting with an average of 9.4 treys per game. Steve Halterman had a double-double with 17 points, two threes, 11 rebounds and 5 assists plus 83% shooting of his field goals and 71% at the foul line. Skylar Knisely was tough under the basket and put up 11 points, three treys and six rebounds. Jed Sheets was held below his season averages by the Wildcats, but still scored eight points and dished out three assists. Hustling Jesse Taylor tallied three points, grabbed four rebounds and had three assists.

Pocahontas made 11 of 20 free throws (55%), hit nine threes (43%) and made 55% of their two-pointers. The Warriors last two games before sectionals are home games with Harman on Tuesday, February 21 and senior night on Friday, February 24. With a girls sectional championship game hopefully on Wednesday night at PCHS the same week, there will be lots of good basketball for local fans to enjoy.

The PVC if the oldest conference in West Virginia (founded in 1936) and has 19 schools in three divisions.

For the second year in a row a senior represented PCHS and won the girls PVC “Top Gun” Shoot-Out. Last year, also at Elkins High School, Shelby Snead won the contest with a high score of 14 points in the second round shoot-off. This year’s girtls contest was rescheduled for the Boys NOC on Saturday, February 18, when bad weather resulted in only the two top girls games being rescheduled for a school night. Senior Miranda McNabb represented PCHS this year and matched Snead’s 14 points with just one round of shooting. Each player had to shoot five shots from five different stations around the three-point line. The first four shots at each station counted for a possible one point, and the fifth shot counted as two points for a basket. The shooter has one minute to try to get all 25 shots fired. The Pendleton County and Union ladies each tied with 10 points each for second place.

The Lady Warriors’ PVC Championship on February 13 was the fourth PCHS girls PVC championship (2012, 2011, 2007 and 2005) since the inception of the night of champions in 2003. Tucker County is now in second place in the series with three wins in 2008, 2009 and 2010. East Hardy (2006), Moorefield (2004) and Pendleton County (2003) each won one time. The PCHS boys won the PVC in 2005. Tucker County has dominated the boys series and won the 2012 championsip over Moorefield 58-43.

The PCHS Girls are second to defending Class A state champion Huntington St. Joseph Central in three-point shooting among all schools in West Virginia on MaxPreps.com with an average of 6.3 treys per game. St. Joe averages 8.9 per game. The girls are second in scoring to Class AA Summers County, second in steals to Class AA Pikeview, and second in assists to Class AAA Parkersburg. The only stat that the Lady Warriors are not in the top-ten is rebounding.

This year boys champion was junior Nathan Goldstein of Tucker County, and he matched Miranda’s 14-point effort. Warrior senior Dillon Kelley tallied 10 points for a tie for third place with senior Jesse McGee of Tygarts Valley. The girls had seven schools participate, and the boys had eight. The rules changed this year eliminating a second round of shooting by the two top finishers after the first round. Last year Lakota Jonese tallied 16 points in the first round for first place and then had to have a second round shootout with Pendleton’s Tyler Gardener who scored 15 points for second place. Jonese dropped to second in round two when he lost round two by a score of 11-13.