By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — A two-game win streak is better than the alternative.
After starting the season with a 1-5 record — including a three-game skid at the beginning against a difficult schedule — the Bluefield Beavers made it two in a row with a 64-37 win over Wyoming East on a rare weekday matinee affair with the Warriors on Tuesday at Bluefield High School.
“We are trying to get back to what we think we can be, which is a good team,” Bluefield junior Shelia Hopkins said. “We were kind of off at the beginning, but we have been working and working and it all paid off.”
Hopkins scored 18 points and Dazia Edwards added 19, and the Beavers (5-3) forced 30 turnovers to dominate the Warriors (5-3). Khadijah Brown added 10 points for Bluefield.
“We’ve still got a long ways to go fundamentally, but we’re playing good as a team,” Bluefield head coach Tony Mallamaci said. “We’ve got real good team chemistry and the kids are meshing together maybe as well as any team I have ever had.”
That chemistry has enabled the Beavers to improve, having won three of their last five games.
“We’re getting better every day,” Mallamaci said. “I know that is a cliche’, but we are getting better every day, as long as you are doing that you can be happy with it.”
Wyoming East committed 18 of its turnovers in the first half, with the Beavers taking a 12-4 lead after the first quarter, and a 30-16 advantage at the break.
“We turned them over in our zone than we did the man-to-man, you would think it would be the opposite,” Mallamaci said. “I don’t know exactly why that is, the zone was effective today.”
Hopkins scored 10 points in the second quarter to finish with 12 at halftime, while Edwards tossed in 10 in the first half. Name the positive statistics in this game and Hopkins had some of all of them against the Warriors. That includes the only two converted 3s in the game.
“I am a good player, I am cool on the court,” Hopkins said. “I have got no drama with anybody, just good sportsmanship.”
Mallamaci has been especially pleased to see the trio of Hopkins, Edwards and Brown produce for the Beavers, combining for 47 points in this one. Tyra Jackson added eight for Bluefield.
“The last couple of games it has started to be like that,” said Mallamaci, whose Beavers split a pair of tournament games last week at Greenbrier West, losing to Bath County and beating Liberty. “When we had that tournament, all three of them were producing like that in those two games as well.”
It was more of the same after the break, with the Beavers outscoring the Warriors 21-10 in the third quarter, led by Brown with six points and five from Edwards, taking a 51-26 lead into the final period.
Bluefield built the margin to as much as 29 on three occasions.
A tendency to fire up 3s with reckless abandon hurt the Beavers early in the season, but Bluefield was more patient on this afternoon, finding good shots, or beating the Warriors up and down the floor in transition.
“Much more patience, we are taking our time and not rushing,” Mallamaci said. “The first couple of games we were just throwing stuff up there...
“We have been working real hard on patience and taking good shots, we’ve still got a ways to go, but we are getting better at it.”
Hopkins did more than score points. The center had an abundance of rebounds and blocked shots, making it difficult for the Warriors to get easy shots at the basket.
“I try to be scramble a little bit and get them out of their game,” she said.
She also contributed several assists, with numerous outlet passes to Beavers running in the other direction following turnovers, blocked shots or missed shots.
“I was just trying to have teamwork, just trying to play ball,” said Hopkins, a junior leader for the Beavers. “I don’t really have much to say, I just played good ‘d’, just playing ball.
“They look up to me a lot, and I never let them down. They are a good team. You have got to work with them and talk to them and everything will go good.”
Wyoming East was paced by Chelsea Duncan with 12 points, seven rebounds and five steals, while Emily Day added six points and Ally Hatfield contributed five points and seven boards.
Both teams struggled at the free throw line. Bluefield was 12-of-31, while the Warriors were 13-of-29.
“Tomorrow we will be working on that,” Mallamaci said.
Bluefield returns to the court next week with games against River View, Mount View and five-time defending Class AA state champion Summers County.
A two-game win streak is nice. The Beavers are looking for much more.
“We are trying to get some more,” Hopkins said. “We are trying to keep going, look to the future and not the past. That is over with, we have just got to look forward to the next team.”
—Contact Brian Woodson
at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

at Bluefield High School
WYOMING EAST (5-3)
Megan Cook 0 0-0 0, Ally Hatfield 2 1-1 5, Hope McNeely 2 0-0 4, Chelsea Duncan 3 6-9 12, Brianne Pertee 1 1-3 3, Emily Day 1 4-8 6, Holly Pettus 1 0-0 2, Chiara Jewell 2 0-0 4, Allison Lovins 0 0-2 0, Catherine Mitchem 0 1-2 1, Laura Sizemore 0 0-0 0, Keri Mullens 0 0-0 0, Caitlyn Jones 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 13-29 37.
BLUEFIELD (3-5)
Tyra Jackson 3 2-3 8, Kaitlyn Thompson 2 1-3 5, Dazia Edwards 8 3-6 19, Khadijah Brown 4 2-10 10, Shelia Hopkins 7 2-3 18, Kayla York 1 0-0 2, Jessica Hayden 0 2-2 2, Alexis Williams 0 0-0 0, Tatiliana West 0 0-2 0. Totals 25 12-31 64.
Wyoming East......................4 12 10 11 — 37
Bluefield..............................12 18 21 13 — 64
3-point goals: WE 0; BF 2 (Hopkins 2). Total fouls: WE 22; BF 20. Fouled out: none.