BY KYLE LOVERN
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Tug Valley will play in the Class A state championship game for the third straight season. The Panthers downed Tucker County 56-43 in the semifinals of the West Virginia State High School Basketball Tournament at the Charleston Coliseum early Thursday afternoon.
The Panthers defeated the Mountain Lions twice during the regular season. This is the third straight state tournament that the two schools have faced off. The last two seasons were in the championship game, while this year it was in the final four.
Tug Valley was the No. 2 seed, while Tucker County was the No. 6 seed.
The Panthers came out with their typical, harassing full-court pressure. They took a quick 10-2 lead at the 5:31 mark as Tucker County Coach Daniel Helmick called a quick timeout.
After the timeout, the Mountain Lions cut the lead to 10-9. By the end of the first quarter the Panthers led 15-14.
The Mountain Lions took their first lead at 18-17 and Panthers Coach Garland “Rabbit” Thompson called a timeout to talk things over with his team.
Tug Valley, who had been getting out-rebounded, turned that around after the timeout. Thompson’s team went ahead 24-20 and then Zade Rash came away with a steal. TVHS slowed things down to play for one last shot before halftime. Tucker County stayed back in their zone defense.
Braydun Ferris then found Rash, who swished in a trey from the corner to give the Panthers a 27-20 lead at halftime.
Ferris, a veteran senior point guard, once again led his team in scoring after the first half of play with 14 points. Ethan Cummings led Tucker with seven points in the first two quarters.
The teams traded buckets in the early part of the third quarter, with Tug Valley maintaining the lead.
However, the Panthers turned up the pressure and forced several turnovers. They took advantage of those and built a 42-29 lead on a nice offensive run late in the quarter. The Mingo County boys led 46-34 heading into the final quarter.
The Panthers slowed things down and coasted to the victory in the closing minutes.
“I’m so happy for our team and my seniors for making it to the championship game,” coach Thompson said in a postgame press conference. “This was a goal we set.”
Thompson said he was pleased with his team’s defense, even though they got out-rebounded.
“Congratulations to Tucker County. They fought hard and are well-coached,” Thompson added.
The Tug Valley head coach, who has four state titles on his resume, praised his team for taking care of the basketball and their unselfish play.
Ferris hit a huge personal milestone in the fourth quarter. Scoring 26 points in the game, it gave the talented Ferris 2,000 career points. He got those two points by swishing a pair of free throws in the final minute of the fourth quarter. Ferris is second all-time in scoring at TVHS. Greg Davis has the most with 2,324 points.
Ferris said it was a “blessing” to hit the historic mark and credited his coaches and teammates for helping him achieve it.
Ferris also led the team with seven rebounds and four assists. Rash had six boards and Newsome dished out three assists for TV.
Rash and Carson Newsome both scored nine points, Cam Slone added seven, Bryson Elia chipped in three and Preston May scored two.
Elia has been playing despite a severe knee injury sustained during the football season.
Cayden Arnold led the Mountain Lions with 17 points, while Cummings finished with nine.
Tug Valley (20-5) will play No. 1 seed Greater Beckley Christian Saturday morning in the championship game.
Score by quarters:
Tucker: 14 6 14 9 – 43
Tug: 15 12 19 10 – 56