The Avery Lady Vikings completed a busy week of round ball action with two games against rival schools.On Wednesday, January 13th, the Lady Vikings took a close game with Mountain Heritage and used a 23-14 second period scoring differential as a springboard to a rout, downing the Lady Cougars 71-49.
The win with the 11th in a row for the Lady Vikings, but the victorious roll came to an abrupt end in Ledger Friday night. The state-ranked Mitchell Lady Mountaineers used smothering defense to hold the Lady Vikings to half its season scoring average, holding Avery to 16 percent shooting in a 47-32 loss.
In the contest at Viking Gym against the Cougars, Avery had a distinct height advantage, using its tall frontline and rebounding ability to generate second shots and score from inside. Heritage kept the pressure on early, however, as the game was tied at 13 after one quarter.
In the second stanza the Avery offense fired on all cylinders. The Vikings were hitting shots, which in turn triggered their full-court press defense that generated numerous turnovers on the young Cougars backcourt. Nine baskets in the second quarter, led by ten points from senior guard Elyse Perry helped Avery pull out to a 36-27 lead at halftime.
As the second half ensued, Avery cooled somewhat shooting from the field, but worked inside to score or get to the foul line. The Lady Vikings were a perfect 8 for 8 from the free throw line in the third stanza and further extended its lead to double figures at
An otherwise dominant night for Avery was tempered somewhat when guard Hayley Pyatte was helped off the floor in the third quarter with an apparent knee injury. Pyatte was unable to return against the Cougars and missed Friday’s game at Mitchell. According to head coach Missy Lyons, Pyatte may return to action within a week.
The Lady Cougars struggled to score with any consistency on Avery for the balance of the night. Katelynn Eudy was dominant in the paint on the offensive end of the floor for the Big Red, scoring 11 points in the second half to spark the Avery offensive juggernaut en route to a 71-49 win.
Avery shot 44 percent from the field for the game, while the defense held Mountain Heritage to just 30 percent shooting. Four Lady Vikings scored double-figures, led by 18 points, four rebounds, and four assists from Katelynn Eudy. Sara Wiseman added 17 points, 17 rebounds, and eight blocked shots. Elyse Perry scored a season-high 16 points with six assists and four steals, while Lauren Avery added a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Brittany Frye led Mountain Heritage with 11 points and five rebounds.
“Heritage came and shoot the ball well, and we felt like we had to keep pressuring them and keep running them which we were able to do. We scored with the ball and we made them work pretty hard by the end of the game,” Avery varsity girls head coach Missy Lyons said after the win. “Katelynn played an awesome game and was really aggressive. We had great balance scoring which was an awesome job. It was a rough and physical game, as both Hayley and Mercedes Bentley were banged up.”
Friday’s much-anticipated showdown in Ledger against the Mitchell Lady Mountaineers was a defensive duel. Mitchell jumped out to an early lead and established its presence in the paint. All-conference performer Laken Norris tallied a pair of baskets in the period, along with six points from 5’7” junior Emily Glenn. Avery was able to find its shot offensively, knocking down just two of its first 11 shots and 5 of its 27 shots in the entire first half.
Mitchell led 16-7 after the first period, but the Avery defense did not allow the Lady Mountaineers the luxury of a large lead. The Lady Vikings held Mitchell to 3 of 15 shooting in the second quarter, which gave Avery an opportunity to get the offense untracked. Unfortunately the Big Red was just 3 for 16 shooting themselves, and Mitchell held a 24-14 lead at halftime.Mary Chesnut Smith led Avery with four points off the bench in the first half as the team struggled to put points on the scoreboard.
“We set a team goal of 15 points per quarter and didn’t meet that. Scoring was an issue and our shooting was just terrible,” Coach Lyons said after the game. “A couple of our leading scorers didn’t even have a basket in the game. Missing a lot of shots around the basket early on became frustrating to us.”
Avery made a total of nine shots for the entire contest, while Mitchell almost doubled the total with 17 made field goals. The Lady Mountaineers extended its lead to
The Vikings tried to rally in the fourth quarter with 11 points, but Mitchell was content with its large lead to run time off the clock with long possessions. The Lady Mountaineers were 8 of 11 from the free throw line in the final quarter to hold Avery at bay and hand the Lady Vikings their first conference loss of the season.
Lauren Avery led the Lady Vikes with eight points and six rebounds, while Mary Chesnut Smith and Mercedes Bentley each poured in six points off the bench. Sara Wiseman scored five points with nine rebounds and three assists.
“I felt like we did a good job defensively in holding Mitchell to just 47 points and Laken Norris to 12 points. On our end we executed well and got shots and looks we wanted, but not scoring took us out of our press a bit,” Coach Lyons stated. “Laken played great defense and took away our long pass, and we did play shorthanded without Hayley. I think we played out of our tempo and we just weren’t ready for it.”
Emily Glenn led the Lady Mountaineers with 18 points and four rebounds. Norris added 12 points, six rebounds, and eight steals, with seven points, five assists and five steals from Autumn Thompson.
“We played four games within a week, and I think that took out part of our preparation time. Four big conference games in the week may have played a factor in what happened,” Coach Lyons said. “I felt our post players would be our advantage, and their post players just outplayed us. I told the girls we played so well against Watauga that I felt like we could be competitive against Mitchell’s, but we just didn’t rise to the occasion. Hopefully we can learn from it and do a much better job against them next time. I still feel like that is our best advantage there in the post area. We took care of the basketball, but just missed too many shots.”
Avery hosted Owen on Tuesday night and sneaked out a narrow 54-52 win over the Warlassies to improve to 12-2 on the season. The Lady Vikings will travel to take on West Wilkes this Thursday and make a road trip to
