By GEORGE THWAITES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
GARDNER — There were no opening-night jitters for the PikeView boys basketball team on Friday night. The Panthers were simply ready to play ball.
Seth Meadows hit five 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 30 points as he led PikeView to a hard-fought 60-58 victory over visiting Oak Hill.
“All of our guys have been waiting for this opportunity to show everybody what we’re made of,” said Meadows, who also distributed seven assists for the Panthers (1-0).
The Red Devils (1-1) were made of pretty tough stuff as well, scrapping to stay within a possession or two over the final two minutes of play. Oak Hill trailed 44-37 headed into the final period but got to within 52-50 on a Paul Walton trifecta with 2:28 showing.
Possessions were as precious as points , with Meadows drawing a key charge and later calling a crucial timeout on a steal to frustrate Oak Hill comeback momentum.
The Red Devils still made PikeView sweat when Andrew Work sank two of his three free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining. Momentary confusion about the clock led to a 3.0 second reset that might’ve changed everything. But the call was reversed —albeit replayed — and the final margin stood.
Brookman finished with 14 points and five rebounds for the Panthers. Hunter Hill had five rebounds and four steals. Todd Vest and Tyler Boyd made a lot of things happen off the scoresheet before fouling out.
“That’s our game plan. We want to be hard to guard, hard to defend. We want to be able to go to the post when we want to, be able to shoot outside when we want to and make it difficult for other teams to choose how they want to defend us and attack what they’ve opened for us,” said PikeView head coach Colton Thompson, whose team travels to Wyoming East on Tuesday.
T.J. Wynn scored 17 points to lead the Red Devils. Work finished with 11.`”
“We didn’t play well enough to win. We did a lot of things wrong in that second half. Especially not passing and working the ball around,” said Oak Hill head coach Benitez Jackson, whose team plays Riverside on Tuesday.
Oak Hill led by six at the end of the first period but relinquished the lead in the second stanza when Meadows and massive 6-foot-6, 280-pound post Wayne Brookman combined for an 8-2 run.
Oak Hill led 30-26 by Andrew Work’s two free throws with 1:40 remaining. A Zach Ruble free throw followed shortly by a Meadows trey with 13 seconds left tied the game at 30 for intermission.

OAK HILL (1-1)
Vest 2, Boyd 1, Meadows 30, Hill 4, Ruble 1, Mann 2, Cecil 3, Norman 3, Brookman 14.
PIKEVIEW (1-0)
Walton 6, Honaker 7, Davis 2, Farrow 3, Light 0, Salinger 5, Bass 4, Scruggs 3, Wynn 17, Work 11, Jones 0.
Oak Hill...............................16 14 7 21 — 58
PikeView.............................10 20 14 16 — 60
Three-point goals: Oak Hill: 5 (Walton, Honaker, Farrow, Scruggs, Wynn 2). PikeView 5 (Meadows 5).