CHARLESTON — Gabby Lupardus gets plenty of much-deserved attention. Yet, it was another freshman who scored 30 points in her first game on the state's biggest stage.
Kara Sandy recorded 30 of 51 points scored by four Wyoming East freshman, and the top-seeded Warriors rolled to a 68-48 Class AA state tournament quarterfinal win over eight-seed Bluefield on Thursday evening at the Charleston Civic Center.
"They have played a lot of games," said Wyoming East head coach Angie Boninsegna, whose Warriors got all but seven of its points from freshmen and sophomores. "They play year round and I think it has helped them keep their composure.
"At times we play older than what we are, and at times we play our age. We held our composure really well tonight because they made a couple of runs at us."
Wyoming East (21-1) will play either defending state runner-up Sissonville or Clay County in the semifinals today at 7:15 p.m.
"They have done a great job of being focused this year," Boninsegna said. "Just all year we have taken it one game at a time and tried to maintain our focus because that was our challenge."
Bluefield (16-5) tied the score at 10-10 after one quarter, and took its lone lead at 12-10, but were outscored 41-29 in the second half in what the program's first state tournament appearance since a three-year run way back in 1920-22.
"It is a whole new experience, we can take this experience and know what is coming down the road...," Bluefield head coach Tony Mallamaci said "You can only learn from this by going through this. I don't know if anybody wins this the first time they come up here...
"I think this is a building block, something we can build on for the next few years."
Both teams admitted to being nervous, and it showed early, with the teams combining for 14 first quarter turnovers, along with numerous missed layups and free throws.
No one felt it more than Bluefield, which had 13 first half turnovers, and made just 8-of-24 shots from the field.
"I felt like we had some chances in the first half," Mallamaci said. "We were missing a lot of layups, little 2-foot shots that made a difference, and we had a few turnovers that was unlike us here recently."
Wyoming East took a 10-2 lead with 1:38 left in the opening period before the Beavers went on an 8-0 run, with a 3 by Emaleigh Gallinger tying the score at 10 going to the second quarter.
Yet, these young Warriors never flinched.
"We are such a young team and that is such a big moment," Boninsegna said. "Bluefield played a good first quarter and we just had to settle down and do our game."
Essence Brown then completed what was a 10-0 run with a basket to open the second quarter, giving the Beavers their lone lead of the game at 12-10.
That is when Sandy began to take the control.
"We just went out and we knew we had to step it up," said Sandy, who was 9 for 22 from the field, 10 for 13 from the free throw line, and also had nine rebounds. "We had to pick up our game and we had to attack hard, play nice defense and protect the ball...
"My shots were going in, and we just played good defense and attacked and overall played pretty well.
The 5-foot-9 freshman scored 11 of the Warriors' 17 second quarter points, many of which came off five of Lupardus' 11 assists.
"I tried to draw the defense towards me, and get her the open shot, and it worked for us," said Lupardus, who also had eight points, nine rebounds and three steals.
Bluefield was able to stay within two at 18-16 before the Warriors went on a 9-3 run to end the half, keyed by a 3 from Sandy, and a basket apiece from fellow freshmen Allie Lusk and Misa Quesenberry.
"We made a couple of changes I really didn't want to make, I wasn't sure what to do there," Mallamaci said. "I think that is when it started, and once they got the momentum going, we had a hard time getting the momentum back.
"That kind of team with the way (Gabby) runs the court, it is just hard to grab it back once you lose it."
Lusk added 10 points, six rebounds and four steals for Wyoming East.
"I thought overall we played a rellly good game tonight," Boninsegna said. "We stepped up when they did make some runs at us, and I am really proud of our girls. Our transition game ran really well at times. We are all just excited."
Wyoming East continued to attack after the break, scoring the first six points of the quarter. Bluefield was able to trim that 17-point deficit down to 11 on a basket by Brown with 5:05 on the clock, but an 8-2 run to end the period put the Warriors up 51-30 going to the final period.
"We like to transition as much as possible, Kara did a really good job attacking it, and Gabby did a wonderful job,"Boninsegna said. "She had two to three people on her all night, but she ran our offense, she got 11 assists so overall we are really pleased.
"This bunch, along with the whole team, we have had a lot of pressure on us to be so young, but they have handled it really well."
Sandy had another 14 points in the third, and added six more in the fourth. Megan Davis had nine points and senior Bre Pertee added seven points, and also had nine boards and four steals for the Warriors.
"I thought we did a pretty good job in the first quarter of containing Gabby, but then as the game went on she kind of got loose and then other kids stepped up too," Mallamaci said. "They have more than one good player. They have got two or three real good players, and you try to focus on her, but some other players were able to hurt us."
Bluefield was led by sophomore Jia Coppola, who had 11 of her team-high 13 points in the second half, along with nine rebounds and four steals. Gallinger added nine points, five rebounds and three steals.
Both were part of Bluefield's state tournament run after playing last season at Graham.
"I played with them since middle school, we played AAU so I knew them pretty well, but it means so much for us to come up year my first year here," said Coppola, whose brother, Corey, will accompany the Bluefield boys team to Charleston next week. "It is pretty cool to have both a brother and a sister make it to the state tournament. I know my parents are proud of me and Corey."
Brown added 12 points, eight boards and six blocked shots in her final game for Bluefield, which was outrebounded 51-35, and had 25 turnovers to 19 for the Warriors. The teams combined for just three 3s, including two by Sandy.
"It was tough, I knew my team, my family had the ability to fight back and get the lead, but we had a hard time managing to keep the lead," Brown said. "They are a really physical team, we are a really physical team, it was kind of like a fight, I guess you could say."
Wyoming East wasn't the only young team on the floor. Brown's 12 were the only points not scored by returnees for Bluefield, including freshmen Dani Janutolo, who had 10 points and five boards, and Alyssa Lester, who dished out four assists.
Mallamaci is confident this first state tournament appearance could bode well for a school used to winning championships.
"Bluefield has a rich tradition in state championships, unfortunately girls basketball hasn't gotten one of them yet, but boys basketball has got four and football has 10 so it is a sports-tradition school," he said. "I think now we are starting to become part of that sports tradition and we hope to just grow on that and be a big part of it in the next few years."
bwoodson@bdtonline.com / Twitter @bdtwoodson

at Charleston Civic Center
BLUEFIELD (16-5)
Emaleigh Gallinger 4-8 0-2 9, Jia Coppola 3-8 7-14 13, Essence Brown 4-9 4-6 12, Jessica Hayden 0-3 0-0 0, Dani Janutolo 4-14 2-4 10, Alyssa Lester 1-4 2-4 4, Abby Atwell 0-0 0-0 0, Sparrow Void 0-0 0-0 0, Lexi Trigg 0-1 0-0 0, Teryn Auville 0-1 0-0 0, Courtney Auville 0-0 0-0 0, Kacie Kennedy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-48 15-30 48.
WYOMING EAST (21-1)
Kara Sandy 9-22 10-13 30, Megan Davis 4-11 1-2 9, Bre Pertee 3-5 1-2 7, Gabby Lupardus 2-8 4-6 8, Haley Butcher 0-3 0-0 0, Misa Quesenberry 1-4 1-2 3, Allie Lusk 4-7 2-2 10, Michaela Shumate 0-1 0-0 0, Chiara Jewell 0-2 0-0 0, Kaci Mullins 0-1 0-0 0, Kyndi Johnson 0-2 1-2 1, Hannah Ford 0-0 0-0 0, Carla Cook 0-0 0-0. Totals 23-66 20-29 68.
Bluefield..........................10 9 11 18 — 48
Wyoming East................10 17 24 17 — 68
3-point goals: BF 1-11 (Gallinger 1-3, Janutolo 0-3, Hayden 0-2, Brown 0-1, Trigg 0-1, T.Auville 0-1); WE 2-11 (Sandy 2-9, Shumate 0-1, Mullins 0-1). Reb: BF 35 (Coppola 9); WE 51 (Sandy 9, Pertee 9, Lupardus 9) Ast: BF 7 (Lester 4); WE 14 (Lupardus 11). Total fouls: BF 20; WE 21. Fouled out: Coppola, Janutolo. Technicals: none.