Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
ELKVIEW Jaiden Mahon scored 22 points while Jaycee Blair added 12 points to lead Class AA No. 8 Chapmanville Regional to a 60-32 win over Herbert Hoover on Thursday night.
Mahon had six rebounds, three steals and two blocks for the Lady Tigers, who scored the game’s first eight points in Thursday’s win and never trailed in the contest.
“It was great for Jaiden to have a big night to set the tone for her senior season,” fourth year Chapmanville Regional coach Kristina Gore said. “She was all over the stat sheet tonight in every category.”
Blair added six rebounds for Chapmanville, who had 36 rebounds, 18 on the offensive glass, in the season opening win.
“Jaycee (Blair) did an exceptional job running the floor this evening and five of her rebounds were on the offensive end,” Gore said. “In fact, we had 18 of those, which is most definitely more than we’ve had in one game since I’ve been here.”
Dazi Farley had eight points, four assists and three rebounds while Brooke Christian filled the stat sheets with five points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.
Haley Fleming scored three points dished out a game-high nine assists, pulled down two rebounds, had two steals and blocked one shot for Chapmanville Regional, who assisted on 22 of 25 made field goals.
“Was happy to see the way we shared the basketball and ran the floor. Our conditioning in the offseason and first month of practice showed up quickly tonight,” Gore said. “(I am) happy for Haley and Brooke, both having career highs in assists this evening.”
Chapmanville Regional was without the services of last season’s leading scorer Alaira Evans. Evans, a 2023 Class AA first-team all state selection, missed Thursday’s opener with an ankle injury.
Gore is hopeful that Evans could make her season debut in the Lady Tigers home opener on December 7 against county rival Logan.
“She’s making a lot of progress, (and) it’s a possibility she could be back for next week’s home opener against Logan,” Gore said. “Even then she’ll be on restricted minutes. We want to make sure we take things slow and do all we can do to keep her healthy.”
Ayva Veltri led Herbert Hoover with 13 points. Emma Cottrell, Sadi Wehrle and Kati Wentz each had four points, Matilee Hill had three and Julianna Byrd and Payshence Lyons had two points each for the Lady Huskies.
Chapmanville led 15-5 after one quarter and 32-11 at halftime. The Lady Tigers lead swelled to 47-19 after three quarters before outscoring the Lady Huskies 13-12 in the final stanza to set the final score.
“Happy to open up the season with a win, (and) pleased to see a big shift in our defensive culture,” Gore said. “We were much more aggressive tonight and played fairly good defense with the exception of about five or six possessions. We will have a look at what we need to work on and fix it.”
Savannah Kirk and Chloe Thompson each had three points, Jessica Brewer had two points and Hannah Miller finished with two points, three rebounds and two steals to round out the scoring for Chapmanville Regional.
“Hannah Miller is stepping up big time right now for us,” Gore said. “(I’m) really happy with the productive minutes she’s providing.”
Both teams were scheduled to take part in the Big 10-Cardinal Conference Challenge over the weekend. Herbert Hoover (0-1) travels to Liberty (Harrison) on Saturday while Chapmanville Regional travels to Class AAA No. 6 Lewis County Friday evening.
Lady Tigers, who squandered a late fourth quarter lead in a Class AA Region 3 co-championship loss to eventual state champion Wyoming East, got the season started on the right foot with a season opening win, but Gore said in order to compete for and win a championship they have identified three areas that they have to continue to improve moving forward.
“We’ve identified three areas as a team that we need to improve drastically in order to be to be a title contender,” Gore said. “Team defense, transition offense and offense rebounding. We ticked all those boxes tonight (and) I hope we can continue more the same moving forward.”
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