By Allen Hamrick
The Panther basketball team locked horns this week against both Richwood and Braxton High Schools. The Panthers played a whale of a game against the tough Richwood Lumberjacks on Wednesday night. With the Panthers, it is nonstop action from the opening bell to the final whistle. Looking for their first win of the season, the Panthers came out swinging and were up 32-30 at the half. After the half, the Panthers went on a bombing run and hardly missed a basket. The Panther defense went to work throwing the Lumberjacks completely off their game with high intensity full court action. The Panthers knocked down 20 points in the 3rd period, and the Lumberjacks were pushing a chain trying to keep up. However, the fast paced one shot, one point offense the Panthers were doing kept the defense of the Lumberjacks line dancing to an offbeat. Not saying that the Lumberjacks weren’t grabbing some net, also, but they just couldn’t go net to net with the Panthers. The final score was Panthers 71, Lumberjacks 61. Zach Deyton gets the hot shot award in the game hitting for a whopping 19 points followed closely by Ayden Brown with 15 and Micah Osborne with 12.
Friday was Homecoming night for the Panthers, and the boys were to battle the Eagles of Braxton on home turf. Coming in off a win, the Panthers had a good amount of steam to lock horns with. The game started off with some head scratching basketball as the Eagles jumped at the chance to capitalize on some Panther turnovers thereby getting a jump on the score and going up 0-12 in the first minutes of the game. Then, it was if the lights came on and Hollywood brought out the cameras. The Panthers went shopping for points and racked up 10 before the Eagles knew what hit them. Bewildered, the Eagles called time out before there wasn’t going to be a 2024 Christmas party. After the time, the Eagles got their wits about them again, and the game went forward with the Eagles keeping the lead out of reach for the Panthers. The Panthers couldn’t overcome the open court shooting of the Eagles and lost the game. With the Panthers, every game is all out, fast and furious, and the team hammers the game down their opponent’s throat. However, as hard as they play, you have to score. The final score was Panthers 37, Eagles 56. The Panthers hit the road again on Saturday and played the tough Doddridge County. The trip north didn’t bode well for the Panthers, and they lost another tough one 36-61.
Friday night was also the time to crown the 2024 Basketball Homecoming Queen of CCHS. The CCHS band and cheerleaders, dressed in their finest, got busy lining up in formation to welcome the new queen to the court and her cheering fans. Newly crowned queen Lilly Goldizen strode onto the courts looking only as a queen would and accepted her crown from CCHS principal Allen Tanner. Landon Williams escorted the new queen across the court with all the class of Jimmy Stewart. The queen’s crown bearer was Gisale Goldizen and her escort was River Osburn. Congratulations to Queen Goldizen and the rest of her court. Freshman Princess was Lainey Nichols and her escort was Brody Scarbro. Sophomore Princess was Lakin Winebrenner with escort Wyatt Coleman. Junior Princess was Skylee Marie Rogers with escort Tristan Samples. Senior Princess was Abigail Marie Holley with escort Isaac Brown.
Congratulations to the new queen, Lillie Goldizen, and her court.
In other basketball news, the Lady Panthers seem to have got into a winning groove taking down the mighty Hoover Lady Huskies in a nail biter 37-36 and also Midland Trail 41-33. Their only loss came against Webster County in a barn burner 39-40. All the teams will be playing this week, so come out and catch a game.
