By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — If there was a telltale tribute to the performance of the Watauga High School women’s basketball team on Feb. 19, in the semifinal game of the 6A/7A Northwestern Conference Championship Tournament against Alexander Central, it was the unanimous array of “W” signs held up by the Pioneer men’s varsity team with their hands and fingers near the end of the 63-61, double overtime loss.
Having arrived courtside midway through the fourth quarter of the women’s varsity semifinal, expecting to take the court and prepare for their own semifinal against St. Stephens, the young men morphed into a cheering section for their Pioneer “sisters.” Down by as many as 10 points early in fourth quarter, the Watauga women battled back to tie the game, 47-47, at the end of regulation, then 55-55 after the first overtime session. It was tied, 61-61, with under five seconds remaining in the second OT, and Alexander Central had possession.
A desperation shot went awry, but the Cougars rebounded and shot again. Another miss — and then another rebound. Finally, on the fourth attempt, the Cougars’ senior guard Malayah Adams had the ball and rose above the crowd for a one-handed short jumper. Wagging heads will forever debate whether she got the ball off in time, before the buzzer indicated time had expired, but the officials ruled it good. Alexander Central had won the night.
The Pioneer loss takes nothing away from the courageous effort of the Watauga Pioneers women. Falling behind, they kept coming back — and coming and coming and coming. Plus, they have gotten better and more competitive with their Alexander Central rivals as the season progressed.
On Jan. 16, they were thumped and dumped by the Cougars in Taylorsville, 91-64. Fast forward to not even a month later, on Feb. 9, and the Pioneers lost a more competitive matchup in Lentz Eggers Gym, 59-48. And now, just over a week had gone by and Watauga took ACHS to double overtime — a near miss in advancing to the Northwestern Conference tourney final on Feb. 20.
Coming off the bench as the sixth player to take the court for Watauga, freshman forward Mia Mitchell tied the Cougars’ Adams for game-high scoring honors, each with 23 points. She shared with reporters after the game that the game plan was to not let ACHS’s top scorer, Meredith Wike, be the reason for a Pioneer loss.
That thought was reinforced by fellow freshman Josie Mayo, who recorded an impressive Pioneer stat line of the evening in scoring 17 points, tied with Alexander Central’s Wike for game-high honors in rebounds, grabbing 9, while adding an assist and a steal.
While Watauga’s freshman duo of Mayo and Mitchell were dynamic and captured a lot of Pioneer fans’ attention with their scoring, the semifinal’s team performance saw some impressive work more behind the scenes, too: Izzy forward Izzy Mohr collecting 7 rebounds, scoring 7 points and distributing 7 assists to go with a blocked shot and a steal; Izzy Torgerson connecting on clutch free throws in the second half, en route to a 5-point, 4 rebound, 3 assists, 1 blocked shot and 1 steal performance; and whatever their stat lines, all seven players in the rotation playing punishing defense. Overall, if there was a flaw in the team’s output it was in hitting free throws at the charity stripe, where they were good on just 9-of-17 attempts (47.1 percent).
Lest we forget, though, Alexander Central carried the night with three players in double figures, scoring: Adams (23), senior guard Addie Jack (11) and junior forward Faith Burch (11).
As a team, the Cougars forced a whopping 26 Pioneer turnovers, a number that includes ACHS poaching 20 steals. In addition to the Pioneers’ aforementioned lackluster performance at the free throw line, credit the Cougars’ own pesky defense and Watauga’s consequential ball-handling woes for helping explain the outcome.
Alexander Central (22-2 overall, 9-1 in conference) now advances to the NWC tournament championship game on Friday, Feb. 20, vs. the league’s lone 7A contender, McDowell (20-5, 10-1). And, you guessed it, the teams split in the home-and-home series during the regular season. McDowell earned a 54-41 win on Jan. 13, but lost to the Cougars, 60-53, on Feb. 7.
With the loss, Watauga will lick its wounds knowing they are improving, week by week, now sporting 13-12 overall record and 7-4 in conference play. All three teams will be interesting threats in the state playoffs, due to start next week.
KEY PERFORMERS
- ACHS – Malayah Adams: 23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals
- ACHS – Addie Jack: 11 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 5 steals
- ACHS – Meredith Wike: 8 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals
- ACHS – Ava Head: 6 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 blocked shot, 5 steals
- WAT – Mia Mitchell: 23 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocked shots, 1 steal
- WAT – Josie Mayo: 17 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal
- WAT – Izzy Mohr: 7 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 blocked shot, 1 steal
- WAT – Izzy Torgerson: 5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 blocked shot, 1 steal
- WAT – Shelby Thompson: 6 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist
- WAT – Presli Wood: 3 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal
