BY KYLE LOVERN
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Tug Valley Lady Panthers had one goal this season—get back to the state tournament and bring home another Class A championship. But their title hopes came to a crushing halt Saturday night at the Charleston Coliseum. In a showdown between the top two seeds, No. 1 Gilmer County dominated No. 2 Tug Valley, rolling to a 66-22 victory and claiming the championship.
The Lady Titans were in the state final for the third time in four seasons. It was their second state title in school history.
Gilmer County came into the tournament with a very tall roster. They smothered the Panthers from the opening tip and held them to 10 first-half points and 10 field goals for the game.
Gilmer County led 29-10 at halftime and pulled away in the second half, outscoring Tug 37-12.
GCHS is a defensive-minded squad led by point guard Allie Ellyson and Ava Dobbins, who at 6-foot-4 makes a major impact on both ends. Blair Dobbins is also 6-foot-4 and Kenley Hartshorn stands 6-foot.
Dobbins, only a junior, finished with a triple-double with 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.
Lena Frymier and Allie Ellyson led Gilmer County with 18 points apiece. Ellyson added nine assists and five steals in the final game of her storied prep career.
Haven Deskins finished with 9 points and nine rebounds for the Panthers, while Bailee Hall had 6 points and 13 boards, giving Hall 46 boards in the state tournament. Kenzie Browning scored five and Katelyn Richardson two to round out the Lady Panthers scoring.
“We may not always shoot the best, but you can’t question the effort,” TV Coach Seth Ooten said. “They played hard.”
Tug Valley’s Bailee Hall, Kenzie Browning and Haven Deskins were voted to the all-tournament team.
Coach Seth Ooten’s squad finished with a fine 23-3 record. It is only his second year as head coach at TVHS.
Browning is the lone senior on the TV roster.
“I knew we had a chance to be special,” Ooten said in the postgame press conference, talking about the competitive practices his girls had all season. “As the year went on, I could see the confidence in them.
“We lose Kenzie (Browning), but we have a good core, we’ll be back next year – hungry,” he added. “It is not the outcome we wanted.”
Gilmer County finished the season with a great 23-4 record.
Score by quarters:
Tug: 3 7 8 4 – 22
Gilmer: 13 16 12 25 – 66
Semifinals: Tug 77, Greenbrier West 52
The Lady Panthers of Tug Valley had a convincing 77-52 semifinal win over sixth-seeded Greenbrier West on Friday.
The Ladies made 14 baskets in an 18-point opening quarter. They poured in 25 more in the second quarter en route to eliminating the Cavaliers.
“When you hit shots, you can get rolling,” Panthers head coach Seth Ooten said. “When you miss three or four shots, you can feel pressure. We did a good job starting fast.
“I knew this was going to be a physical game and a tough game. Luckily, we shot the ball much better,” Ooten said. “We shot with the same confidence as yesterday but less nerves and more energy. We put together a good half with a good run on them and we’re moving on.”
Tug Valley, now 23-2, finished 28 for 61 from the floor and made 12-of-24 of their 3-point attempts.
Haven Deskins made five 3s and led the Panthers with 23 points. Kenzie Browning scored 16 to go with nine steals and five assists, while Bailee Hall was once again dominant on the boards and totaled 15 points and a game-best 15 rebounds, with nine on the offensive end. She also added five steals.
The Panthers point guard Kylie DeBoard added eight points and a game-high seven assists.
Katie Hall scored nine points and Katelyn Richardson provided a spark off the bench with a pair of 3s for 6 points.
The win put TVHS in the championship against Gilmer County on Saturday.
Score by quarters:
Greenbrier: 9 8 13 22 – 52
Tug: 18 25 18 16 – 77
Quarterfinals: Tug 55, Webster County 37
Tug Valley had a sluggish offense in the first half and had to rely on their strong defense to pull out a first-round victory over Webster County 55-37 Thursday afternoon in the Class A Girls State Tournament.
The event took place at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
“There will be nights you don’t shoot well. They say defense travels and it certainly traveled with us to Charleston,” Ooten said. “We tried to take better shots and get to the free-throw line and we did that in the second half.”
“Kind of a tale of two halves. We came out and the pressure might’ve gotten to us a little bit,” Panthers head coach Seth Ooten said. “We stumbled, but we played great defense in the first half and just didn’t shoot the ball well. Some people say we’re a second-half team. In the second half that was a different game. We made a lot of shots we’d been missing. The nerves settled in.“
TVHS led 37-23 through three quarters, and the fourth-quarter margin was never inside 14. Browning made another 3 with 4:22 left for a 47-28 lead as part of her 16-point effort to go with six steals.
Tug Valley scored 10 low post points in the third quarter—12 off turnovers—and made 7-of-14 shots to go with 9-of-13 free throws. Two foul shots from Kenzie Browning made it 28-18 for the first double-figure margin. That was part of a 15-0 extended Panther run that culminated with a Browning triple and Katelynn Richardson layup.
The Lady Panthers outscored Webster 40-21 in the final two quarters to pull away.
Tug Valley’s Haven Deskins led all players with 17 points and Browning finished with 16. Hall scored nine and had her usual great rebounding game with 18 boards and six steals.
Kylie DeBoard scored seven points and dished out six assists, while Katie Hall scored four points and grabbed nine rebounds and Richardson scored two points.
Score by quarters:
Webster: 7 9 7 14 – 37
Tug: 4 9 24 16 – 55