By GEORGE THWAITES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
GARDNER — With the respective teams bound for separate post-season destinies, the Princeton girls’ basketball rematch with PikeView on Wednesday night was what the Brits might call a “friendly.”
That didn’t translate into cutting each other any slack.
Madison May scored 16 of her 26 points in the second half and the La dy Panthers took a 56-45 payback victory over the Tigerettes.
“Us going into sectionals just having this win ... it’s huge,” said May, who had four rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots.
The rival status of the rematch all but guaranteed mutual hustle on the defensive end, the effectiveness of which was at times compounded by offensive struggles at Princeton’s end of the floor.
“Their shooting was just out of sight tonight. We hadn’t played in two weeks and I though it really showed tonight,” said Princeton head coach Charlie Angell, whose team had beaten PikeView 53-42 in Princeton. “I was worried the most about that. This is always an emotional game. Us, Bluefield, PikeView, Summers County ... all four are evenly matched and if one team is hitting, this is what’s going to happen.”
Ashley Scott scored 11 points for PikeView (9-10), including a 3-pointer that put the Lady Panthers up 13-10 with 1:35 remaining in the first quarter. The Tigerettes cut the home team’s first quarter lead to one point after Adrianna Mitchem hit Jaime Vest with a cross-court assist down the baseline for a mid-range jumper at the 12-second mark.
The game was tied at 24 late in the second quarter after a perimeter shooting duel that saw 3-pointers traded between Scott and May on the Panthers’ end and Danielle Hall and Kaleigh Barker for Princeton.
Over the last two possessions of the half, PikeView post Hannah Smith came up with a shot block and stick-back to put the Lady Panthers up 26-24 at the half.
“They were just playing man. We weren’t moving off the ball. We were just walking around. In the second half we started moving off the ball and setting screens and that really helped us,” May said.
PikeView got the second-half party started with fading jumper and a 3-pointer from Brittany Moore, who finished with 15 points on the night. May ended the third quarter with a buzzer-beating trey for the 39-33 lead. She opened the final frame with a 3-pointer that rattled in, followed by a three-point play that put on the double-digit margin the Lady Panthers maintained to the end.
“I was really pleased with the way we played. We came out and were aggressive. We played real good defense and our shots were falling,” said PikeView head coach Karen Miller, whose team plays Mount View at home on Thursday. “This was a big win against a big rival team.”
Scott had four steals and three assist and Hannah Justice and Kaleigh Payton had six rebounds apiece for PikeView.
Kaleigh Barker finished with a double-double for Princeton (12-5), scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Danielle Hall had seven rebounds and four assists. Brittany Long had eight rebounds, DayDay Eaves had seven boards and Mitchem had six rebounds.
“We didn’t get good guardplay tonight. We didn’t make good decisions with the basketball. I knew we’d be rusty but I hoped it wouldn’t be this bad,” said Angell, whose team plays River View at home on Friday. “But Karen does a good job here and her girls deserved to win tonight.”
Following in the footsteps of Lyndsay Hatfield last year, May was awarded a Wendy’s High School Heisman trophy in a ceremony preceding the tip-off of Wednesday’s game. She enjoyed her moment, but splitting with the Tigerettes obviously took top priority with her.
“Getting that award was huge. I saw everybody who were seniors last year get it and years before that, so I always thought about getting it,” said May. “It made me happy. Getting it against a rival was big, but just getting that win tonight was huge for our team.”

At PikeView High School
PRINCETON (12-5)
Danielle Hall 2 1-2 7, Tayah Belcher 0 0-0 0, Adrianna Mitchem 1 1-2 3, Jaime Vest 3 0-0 7, Brittany Long 1 0-0 2, Kaleigh Barker 7 4-8 19, Autumn Bradley 0 0-0 0, DayDay Eaves 3 1-7 7. Totals 17 7-19 45.
PIKEVIEW (9-10)
Brittany Moore 7 0-2 15, Madison May 8 7-8 26, Ashley Scott 4 0-0 11, Hannah Justice 0 1-2 1, Sparrow Void 0 0-0 0, Hannah Smith 1 1-2 3, Kaleigh Payton 0 0-0 0, Ashley Sparks 20 9-14 56.
Princeton..................12 12 9 12 — 45
PikeView....................13 13 13 17 — 56
3-point goals: Princeton 4 (Hall 2, Vest, Barker), PikeView 7 (Moore, May 3, Scott 3).