By GEORGE THWAITES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
GARDNER — The pregame atmosphere of Thursday’s Region 3 co-championship game with Wyoming East felt a lot like a big party being thrown in honor of the Panthers.
Then the Warriors crashed it.
Big men David Carte and Cody Lester led Wyoming East in clearing the glass and the Warriors rode their lopsided advantage on the boards to a 71-53 victory.
“We knew that was going to be a problem,” said Pike View head coach Colton Thompson. “We can contain one, but it’s hard when you’ve got two coming that hard to the boards that are that big. A lot of those rebounds they pulled were above the rim when they pulled them. It was a tough question to solve.”
Wyoming East (16-9), which earned its first state tournament appearance in three years, will face Robert C. Byrd in a 9 p.m. Class AA state quarterfinal game at the Charleston Civic Center.
“That was what we thought was going to be the key to the game,” said Warriors head coach Rory Chapman, whose team got eight second chance buckets. “When we played Westside, they beat us on the boards and I felt that was the difference. We preached it in practice and everybody responded.”
Carte and Lester, both athletic 6-foot-5 forwards, proved unmatchable matchups for the Panthers (18-6), who were denied what would have been their first state tournament appearance since 2011.
Both bigs recorded double-doubles, with Carte scoring 17 points with 16 rebounds and Lester coming off the bench to lead the team with 18 points, rounding up a dozen boards.
“Carte and Cody Lester absolutely dominated the boards. You couldn’t ask for harder workers. David Carte is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen,” said Chapman.
Carte also had multiple deflections, steals and blocks. At one point he blocked a shot, nabbed the steal and galloped off for the transition layup.
“He’s really improved throughout the season. He’s a great player and he’s going to cause a lot of headache for some other teams in Charleston,” Thompson said.
Guard Logan Blankenship scored 16 points for Wyoming East, picking up a couple of those second chance buckets. Johnathan Sims only got loose for two 3-pointers on his way to 12 points, but one of them was huge.
Hunter Hill, who hit five 3-pointers on his way to a team-leading 19 points for the Panthers, authored PikeView’s last-gasp surge in the third period against the Warriors seconds after floor leader Seth Meadows sat down momentarily with a rolled ankle.
The Panthers trailed by 10 when Hill stroked three consecutive trifectas to trim Wyoming East’s lead to five. The home crowd was decidedly getting into it.
Sims unloaded a three to cork that momentum, turning it back the Warriors’ way with his subsequent steal and transition layup.
PikeView didn’t really start to look gassed until Sims’ 3-pointers for the 57-40 lead with 6:17 remaining in the game. The Panthers finally got a break when Carte was whistled for goaltending on a Tyler Cecil layup, but PikeView’s kids didn’t appear to have enough legs left to feel emboldened by it.
“I thought we got tougher as the game went through. They started getting a touch tired and we sensed blood in the water and we attacked,” Chapman said.
Wyoming East and PikeView met once during the regular season in December but weren’t able to play the rematch due to inclement weather. Chapman said he’d kept close tabs on the Panthers’ progress.
“I’d been scouting them. I’d been to three or four games late in the season so we kind of knew they were coming 1-3-1 or 2-3 zone and we were ready,” Chapman said.
“(On offense) they try to spread you out four out and one in. We wanted to take away the dribble drive and force them to shoot the long 3. We felt like early in the first half they hit some bombs that kept them in. The second half they started missing some of those and we were able to get out on him,” he said.
PikeView post Wayne Brookman finished with nine points and six rebounds, also grabbing four steals. Tyler Boyd had three assists. Meadows, who finished with 15 points, drew two charges.
Hill was Thompson’s lone senior starter. The Panthers have some things to mull over in the off-season.
“It’s definitely a great experience. You wish it could have went the a better way,” said Thompson. “But we fought hard and I think we overachieved everything anybody expected from us. I hope these guys are excited to come back next year.”

At PikeView High School
WYOMING EAST (16-9)
Logan Mullins 0 0-0 0, Johnathan Sims 5 0-0 12, R.J. Folden 2 1-2 6, Alec Lusk 1 0-0 2, Logan Blankenship 4 8-9 16, Cody Lester 8 2-4 18, David Carte 7 3-4 17. Totals 27 14-19 71.
PIKEVIEW (18-6)
Todd Vest 3 0-0 6, Tyler Boyd 1 1-3 3, Seth Meadows 5 4-4 14, Hunter Hill 6 2-2 19, Waylon Graham 0 0-0 0, Daniel Baldwin 0 0-0 0, Sebastian Mann 0 0-0 0, Tyler Cecil 1 0-0 2, Dakota Stilwell 0 0-0 0, Wayne Brookman 4 1-3 9. Totals 20 8-12 53.
Wyoming East.........12 14 22 23 — 71
PikeView....................6 15 19 13 — 53
3-point goals: Wyoming East (Sims 2, Folden), PikeView 5 (Hill 5).