By J. DANIEL ROLLINS
for The Daily Telegraph
NEW RICHMOND — It's nearly a 90-mile bus ride from Wyoming East High School to the Charleston Civic Center, home of next week's West Virginia high school girls basketball state tournament.
For the Class AA No. 1 Lady Warriors, it's going to be a sweet 90 miles.
Wyoming East (18-1) punched its ticket to the big dance Friday evening, in front of a nearly sold out crowd in New Richmond, defeating a tough and talented PikeView Lady Panthers team 59-41 for the Region 3 co-championship.
"This is wonderful," Wyoming East coach Angie Boninsegna said following the win. "I'm happy for all these girls. They've had a really good year and to go all the way to Charleston is really wonderful. They beat a really talented PikeView team to get there."
Despite winning by 18 points and being in front nearly all 32 minutes of the game, Wyoming East was challenged by a talented group of Lady Panthers, led by the play of Lyndsay Hatfield, who scored 13 points. Teammate Courtney White threw in 10 points while Madison May scored eight.
But maybe more challenging for the Lady Warriors was the defensive effort the Lady Panthers put up, working in a zone defense for the entire game, in an attempt to slow down the tempo and make it more difficult for the slasher freshman Gabby Lupardus to find the bucket.
It worked in the first quarter, with Lupardus being limited to only four points and a field goal in the opening frame. It wouldn't be able to stop the super youngster, who finished the night with 22 points.
"We wanted to kind of slow the game down a little bit and not have a fast-paced game," PikeView coach Karen Miller said. "That was our goal going into the game. When you can keep her to that score in the first quarter and it changes in the second, it's a little frustrating."
Leopards managed to find her way to the hole throughout the night, mostly in transition and off the dribble, charging the lane and seemingly always — sometimes nearly magically — to put the ball in the hole.
"Gabby, she's just unreal," Miller added. "She's just unreal to be a freshman and play like that. Angie (Boninsegna) has got years with Gabby and all those freshmen. She really deserves it. They'll do really well (in Charleston)."
While Lupardus was doing what she normally does, impressing the fans in attendance and leaving the opposing defenses befuddled, it was teammates Kara Sandy and Bre Pertee who also made a difference. Sandy scored 11 points, while Pertee, one of the senior leaders on the team, scored nine.
Pertee, who Boninsegna calls one of the leaders on the team, was in tears following the game.
"We're going to Charleston. I'm so happy," she said.
Pertee and teammate Haley Butcher battled inside against Hatfield and White for a lot of the game, going the extra effort to pull down a rebound and either get the putback or kick it back out to Sandy or Lupardus. Butcher finished with a game-high 10 rebounds.
"We didn't shoot well outside tonight, but we got out on transition and got up a little bit. They got some big offensive rebounds for us underneath the goal," Boninsegna said.
It wasn't just underneath the basket that the Lady Warriors thrived, but at the charity stripe. Wyoming East went 19-for-22 from the free-throw line, helping to pad its lead and secure the victory.
"We've been working on it every day," Lupardus said. "We shoot foul shots for 15 minutes twice every day. We run and shoot two foul shots, then run and shoot two foul shots. We did that for a lot of practices."
For the Lady Warriors, who came into the season seemingly under the radar with more experienced teams like Westside and Summers County in the region, they now go into the state tournament as the No. 1 team in the state. They also go in with a bull's-eye on their back. That's not something Wyoming East is going to take for granted.
Lupardus spoke of the motivation the team has had to bring home a state championship this season, noting posters hanging in the locker room with the reminder that anything less than a trophy would be a letdown.
"It's the best feeling in the world," she said. "This was our goal. We're going to go there and we plan to take it home."
While the Lady Warriors may be the favorites to do so, Boninsegna insists they're going to do things the way they've done it all season long.
"I think all along we wanted to play and take it one game at a time," she said. "That's what we've done in Charleston and that's what we'll do in Charleston. We just have to stay focused and relaxed and go down there and play hard."

At Wyoming East
PIKEVIEW (12-7)
Madison May 3 2-2 8, Brennah Davis 2 3-3 7, Lauryn Hatfield 1 0-0 3, Lyndsey Hatfield 6 1-2 13, Courtney White 5 0-0 10, Brittany Moore 0 0-0 0, Kayleigh Payton 0 0-0 0, Chloe Davis 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 6-7 41.
WYOMING EAST (18-1)
Kara Sandy 4 2-2 11, Megan Davis 1 0-0 3, Missa Quesenberry 2 3-3 7, Brianne Pertee 3 3-5 9, Gabby Lupardus 7 8-8 22, Haley Butcher 0 3-4 3, Allie Lusk 2 0-0 4. Totals: 19 19-22 59.
PikeView.........................8 9 13 11 — 41
Wyoming East..............14 17 14 14 — 59
3-point goals: PV: 1 (La. Hatfield); WE: 2 (Sandy, Davis). Fouled out: None.