If you were one of the fortunate to have watched the CWVAC basketball tournament at the Braxton County Armory, you would have been subjected to some of the extreme highs and lows that come with a tournament of this intensity. Some may say, “Ahhh, it’s just a middle school tournament,” but it had all the action of an NBA Final, maybe even a little more. Fans from both sides filled the bleachers, and the noise was deafening.
The Lady Mustangs represented the county of Clay to the highest level in both games they played this weekend. Friday night was the semi finals; it pitted the Lady Mustangs against the Lady Bears of Nicholas County, and the late game was Braxton against Calhoun. It was inevitable that the Lady Mustangs beat Nicholas and to go head to head in the finals against the Lady Knights of Braxton County. They had to get past the Lady Bears first, and what a game it was. Talk about your heart pounding, sit on the edge of your seat game, this was definitely it. The Lady Mustangs took a pretty good 10 point lead early in the game, but that was dashed as the shooting wheels fell off the wagon for the Lady Mustangs and gave the Lady Bears a chance to catch up. The game went paycheck to paycheck for most of the rest of the game, and with around 14 seconds left on the clock, it was all tied up at 30 points each. The Lady Bears had the first crack at a game winning shot as the fans were checking their heart monitors. However, with some spot on defense, the Lady Bears gave it back to the Lady Mustangs. With the clock down to about 3 seconds, the shot was attempted and time stood still as the ball threw in a little dramatics of its own, bouncing around the rim as a few hundred people watched the ball doing its dance and eventually fall to the floor as the game went into overtime. With three minutes on the board, the Lady Mustangs went to work, and Brooklyn Burford and Julia Holcomb dropped in the final points to win the game 36-33. Virginia Haverty was the ace with 12 points. This brought the Lady Mustangs into the championship game against their arch rival, the Lady Knight of Braxton County.
There is a lot to say about this game, and then again, not a lot to say. The Lady Mustangs had as hard a time getting a shot through the net as you do putting a smoke ring in your pocket. The Lady Knights also had a distinct advantage in height, but the girls fought hard the whole game and have nothing to be ashamed of. The Lady Knights took a big lead by the third with shooting from their ace Jocelyn Abraham, who scored 16 points in the game and a lot of them coming from foul shots. One more factor of the game, which tipped the scales in the Lady Knights favor, was that the Lady Mustangs were called for 22 fouls to the Lady Knights 8, which is an odd stat in a basketball game, to say the least – a stat which is generally closely even. Referees who ref such a critical game should be brought in from somewhere not near either hometown. That being said, the Lady Mustangs had a whale of a year and have some of the best fans in the world, and they proved that Saturday night. Brooklyn Burford, Jordan Pierson, and Emilea Holcomb were awarded All Conference. Adrien Dorsey and Virginia Haverty received the All Tournament award. Congratulations to all the Lady Mustangs and their coaches for an outstanding year.
