By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
GARDNER — Hoops took no holiday in Gardner. Tuesday was the first day of school in 2016 at PikeView High School, but the Panthers girls basketball team had already been haunting the halls.
Their commitment showed on Tuesday night in a 61-36 win over James Monroe, which dressed just seven players.
“I was concerned since we hadn’t played since (Dec.) 21st,” said PikeView (5-3) head coach Karen Miller. “But we came and played really aggressive defense, and that actually turns into offense. I was really impressed with the girls.”
“The girls worked real hard in practice. That’s what we have to continue to do, keep working every day ... and be ready for whoever we play.”
PikeView senior Sparrow Void said, “We took advantage of our break. We didn’t stay lax. We (focused) on coming back to school and making sure we got the job done.”
Fellow senior Madison May canned 12 field goals, racking up 30 points. She said about the break, “We worked on stuff that we need, obviously, to work on. We worked on defense, a lot. ... Our defense really looked a whole lot better tonight.”
The break wasn’t all about strategy, though. May said, “We give gifts to each other. That was really cool. We’re getting to know each other more, and I think that we’re looking a lot better on the court.”
May also had eight rebounds, three assists, seven steals and a block.
The Lady Mavericks (3-7) were without senior Megan Bailey, who has a hurt knee. That drew a lot of PikeView’s attention to freshman Gracie Mann, who still scored 14 points.
Head coach Mike Hines said, “You take a senior leader out of the game (and) they spy Gracie the whole time,” Hines said.
“We prepared them for everything that PikeView was going to do, the diamond press, the 1-3-1. We prepared them. For some reason, we weren’t ready to compete, and Coach Miller had her girls ready to compete.”
“For some reason, we never play good here — but you’ve got to give credit to PikeView. ... They competed. We didn’t. They whupped us.”
The Monroe countians made just four field goals in the first half, but didn’t give up. A 10-0 run in the first four minutes of the second half cut their deficit from 24 to 14 points. PikeView answered with a 16-1 splurge to shut the comeback door.
Holly Huffman grabbed 14 rebounds for the Lady Mavs. Kaleigh Peyton had nine boards for PikeView, and Ashley Scott recorded six rebounds and five assists.
James Monroe hosts Princeton on Thursday and travels to Summers County on Friday. PikeView hosts River View on Friday and takes on Westside and Summers County next week.
“It’s going to be tough,” Miller said. “We’ve just got to go out and play basketball like we normally play.”

At Gardner
JAMES MONROE (3-7)
Gracie Mann 5 4-7 14, Taylor Sams 3 1-2 8, Kelli Ellison 1 2-6 5, Holly Huffman 1 1-5 3, Morgan Wylie 3 0-0 6, Kameryn Fields 0 0-2 0. Totals 13 8-22 36.
PIKEVIEW (5-3)
Madison May 12 4-5 30, Ashley Scott 1 0-0 2, Brianna Shrewsbury 0 1-2 1, Courtney Boone 0 0-1 0, Hannah Justice 2 2-4 6, Sarah Robinson 2 1-1 3, Sparrow Void 2 0-1 4, Hanna Smith 2 0-0 4, Kaleigh Peyton 4 1-2 9. Totals 25 9-16 61.
James Monroe...........4 7 11 14 — 36
PikeView..............15 17 14 15 — 61
3-point goals — JM 2 (Sams 1, Ellison 1); PV 2 (May 2). Total fouls — JM 15, PV 20. Fouled out — JM, Fox; PV, Scott.