By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON — Sometimes help comes from unexpected places.
Bluefield High School freshman Alyssa Lester, scoreless in the first half, tossed in 16 points after intermission to help the Beavers squeak by PikeView’s Panthers 46-43 in the girls Class AA, Region 3, Section 2 championship on Thursday evening at Princeton Senior High School.
Lester had three straight baskets in a minute and a quarter of the third period to turn a 35-31 PikeView lead into a 37-35 Bluefield advantage in the title game at Princeton Senior High School.
Lester said, “Man, I haven’t hit like this in, forever, and it felt really good to help my team.”
“It was mostly my team. The pick-and-rolls mostly did it. It was the team effort, it wasn’t just me. If I didn’t have my team, I couldn’t do it.”
Bluefield (15-4) head coach Tony Mallamaci said, “We drew up a couple of plays, a few pick-and-rolls for her, and then some of that (run) was just natural instinct. She’s just a natural player. That was part of it.”
There were six ties and five lead changes in the contest.
The game was almost three minutes old before PikeView’s Lyndsay Hatfield netted the first points, on a layup. Jessica Hayden of Bluefield answered with a 3-pointer 13 seconds later.
Bluefield had a stretch of four one-and-done possessions in the first quarter, which ended with the Beavers ahead 8-6. They retained the lead through the second stanza, taking a 15-11 margin into halftime.
The shooting was glacial in the first half. The Beavers shot 5 for 27 and the Panthers were 4 for 28 from the floor. Bluefield improved to 12 for 23 in the rest of the game, while PikeView was 12 for 33.
Lester scored the first three field goals of the third quarter to give Bluefield its largest lead, 21-12.
PikeView (12-6) exploded with five steals in the remainder of the quarter, powering a a 10-2 run that gave the top-seeded Panthers their first lead of the half, 26-24 with 50 seconds left in the third.
PikeView head coach Karen Miller said, “We thought if we just settled down and played basketball, we would be fine. We came back in the third quarter and we played a whole lot better.”
Twice in the final quarter, PikeView claimed four-point leads with shots from the foul line, but the Panthers’ long-range field goals did not fall and the ball went back the Beavers’ way.
Courtney White’s putback with 6.6 seconds left closed PikeView’s deficit to 44-43, but Jia Coppola sank both free throws with 3.9 seconds left for the final points, and Brittany Moore’s half-court heave at the buzzer missed.
“We didn’t give up, and we kept playing,” Coppola said.
Lester said that down the stretch, “We played smart. We got back on defense more. We made our shots and finished very well in this game.”
Miller said, “Just missing easy shots, and foul trouble, that kind of hurt. The best defensive player (Brennah Davis), she fouled out, and that hurt. She was causing (Bluefield) a lot of problems, while she was in there.”
In the first game of the season, the Panthers nipped Bluefield 53-51 in Gardner. Wild swings of momentum punctuated the rematch on Jan. 31, with PikeView claiming a sweep with a 61-58 decision.
Lyndsay Hatfield scored 23 points for PikeView that night and had 20 in the first meeting. Coppola led Bluefield with 15 points in the January contest. Essence Brown had 15 for Bluefield in their December outing.
Bluefield head coach Tony Mallamaci said, “We played about the same way, all year round. We just weren’t able to get over the hump, and this time, we just happened to get over the hump.”
“They’ve got a very good team, very well coached, and I think we’ve got a pretty good team, too. If we played 10 times, one of us would win five, the other would win five.”
Coppola and Brown each had 10 points and nine rebounds for Bluefield. Freshman Dani Janutolo had 12 boards.
White recorded 13 points and 17 rebounds for PikeView. Lyndsay Hatfield notched 10 points and eight boards.
White said, “We were looking forward to getting the fast break, since Bluefield’s so athletic. ... That was one of our objectives, to get the rebounds, so we could get it out fast and hopefully get down the floor and get an easy layup.”
The Beavers will be the host team for next week’s regional championship round, playing the runner-up from southern West Virginia’s section one tournament.
As section 2 runner-up, the Panthers will travel to play the champion of section one next week.
That section held its semifinals on Thursday with Wyoming East beating Liberty 106-43 and Summers County topping Westside 94-57. The section one championship is on Saturday, weather permitting.
Coppola said the sectional championship “feels pretty good. It feels like we’re going upstate.” She said it didn’t matter to her who the regional opponent is. “We’ll still play our game,” she said.
Mallamaci said about hosting a regional co-title match, “The same thing happened last year and we fell a little bit short. Hopefully, we can do a better job of (defending) our home court this year.”
Miller said that PikeView was already planning to move on, moments after the final buzzer. “I told the girls that we still have another opportunity — and we’ll have to see who that is,” she said.
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com;
Twitter @BDTBone

At The Ralph Ball Court
BLUEFIELD (15-4)
Jia Coppola 3 4-6 10, Dani Janutolo 0 -12 1, Essence Brown 4 2-2 10, Emaleigh Gallinger 1 3-5 6, Jessica Hayden 1 0-0 3, Alyssa Lester 8 0-0 16. Totals 17 10-15 46.
PIKEVIEW (12-6)
Brittany Moore 2 0-0 5, Madison May 3 2-4 8, Brennah Davis 2 0-0 5, Lauryn Hatfield 0 2-2 2, Lyndsay Hatfield 3 4-6 10, Courtney White 6 1-4 13. Totals 16 9-16 43.
Bluefield........................8 7 10 21 — 46
PikeView.........................6 5 16 16 — 43
3-point goals — BHS 2 (Gallinger 1, Hayden 1); PVHS 2 (Moore 1, Davis 1). Total fouls — BHS 14, PVHS 18. Fouled out — Davis.