CHARLESTON Ƶ They say pressure is a privilege.
Wayne High SchoolƵs girls basketball team hounded Nitro with defensive pressure on Saturday. The Pioneers hassled the Wildcats on the offensive side, too.
And now Wayne has the privilege of calling itself, for the first time, the state champion.
The Pioneers dethroned Nitro 56-39 in the ƵSSAC Class AAA tournament final to win their first state title on Saturday afternoon at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center.
WayneƵs defensive mixture of a zone in the halfcourt and pressure from all over befuddled the defending champ Wildcats into a 30.4% shooting performance from the field, including 23.1% from 3-point range, and 18 turnovers Ƶ all but two of which were steals.
NitroƵs Bri Gibson downed 6 of 10 floor shots and 4 of 6 triples for 16 points. The rest of the Wildcats were 8 for 36 on field goals and 2 of 20 on treys.
ƵGibson hurt us,Ƶ Wayne coach Wade Williamson said, Ƶbut we came into the game thinking if we could keep (Brooklyn) Cawley and Natalie (Smith) down, we would have had a really good chance of winning, and for us to hold Natalie to four (points) is just completely awesome.Ƶ
The Pioneers didnƵt settle just for making life difficult for the high-octane Smith and Cawley, who tallied five points. Wayne applied the same hassle when it had the ball, using penetration to earn quality looks and free throws.
The PioneersƵ Jayce Sammons pitched in a game-high 22 points en route to tournament MVP honors. She made 10 of 12 free throws. Brooke Adkins added 16 points and Mikayla Stacy scored seven, including back-to-back buckets in the third-quarter surge in which Wayne pulled away.
ƵThey took us out of our game,Ƶ Nitro coach Pat Jones said of the Pioneers. ƵWe settled for way too many outside shots today. We didnƵt play our type of game, where we want to get the ball into the post, and it showed.
Ƶ(Wayne) took our game and played our game plan, basically. They got to the basket, got to the foul line and made their free throws. We shot six free throws to their 22. ThatƵs a big difference in the game.Ƶ
Despite straggling to a nine-point deficit at halftime, Nitro (21-5) cut its deficit to four points twice early in the third quarter. The second time was on GibsonƵs 3 with 4:51 to go in the third frame, which indicated the Wildcats werenƵt going anywhere.
So the Pioneers ran away and hid with a 14-2 run encompassing the rest of the third quarter.
It began with StacyƵs step-through move to split two Nitro defenders in the lane, and the next trip down, Stacy converted AdkinsƵ behind-the-back transition pass into a layup.
Sammons got free backdoor for a lay-in, Adkins splashed in a 3 and after Sammons hit four free throws in the final 30.6 seconds of the third, Wayne was up 16 and well on its way to wearing the crown.
ƵWe were able to keep the pressure on (Nitro) not only defensively,Ƶ Williamson said, Ƶbut we kept pressing them offensively from the standpoint of, we kept pushing the ball at them.
ƵWe didnƵt run a whole lot of sets today. We kept pushing the ball at them and trying to get backdoors and things to take advantage of what they were doing.Ƶ
It worked well enough for the Pioneers to extend their lead to 20 on two occasions in the fourth quarter.
Williamson conceded that might Ƶseem crazyƵ coming into the game, considering the Pioneers and Wildcats played to a 10-point margin in the 2024 state semifinals and a 30-25 decision on Jan. 24 Ƶ both won by Nitro.
But he had no questions about the legitimacy of the result, and suggested it was fueled at least in part by those prior losses to their Cardinal Conference foe.
ƵI donƵt want to act like we knew we could beat them by 20 or anything like that,Ƶ Williamson said, Ƶbut I think we knew ... we have the better team, and we had the better team, and we just had to go make sure we could go do that on a daily basis. And we tried to do that in practice when nobody was watching.
ƵI think thatƵs when you get better. You get better when nobodyƵs watching you, and I think thatƵs what we tried to do. We just kept our head down, and we lost a couple games this year that were close and tight against very good teams, and it never deterred us. I think that shows our character and maturity.Ƶ
Sammons put the Pioneers (22-4) ahead to stay with a 3-pointer 11 seconds into the second quarter. She added another one while falling to the floor about three and a half minutes later and turned it into a four-point play.
ƵItƵs always great to make an and-one 3,Ƶ Sammons said, Ƶbut when weƵre shooting, weƵre always trying to get in a rhythm, and when one of us gets in the rhythm, we usually all try to get in it.
ƵAnd IƵm just really proud of all of us. ItƵs not about me, itƵs about the team, and IƵm really proud of all of us.Ƶ
Sammons and Adkins each had five steals and Lexi Blankenship cleared eight rebounds for Wayne.
Though Smith struggled by her lofty standards offensively, she cleared 13 rebounds for Nitro.
The Wildcats now go back to being the proverbial hunter after being the hunted in what Jones termed an ƵexhaustingƵ season of taking every opponentƵs best shot.
They stayed for the PioneersƵ award ceremony on the court after the game in order to find fuel for that pursuit.
ƵI wanted them to sit out there and see (Wayne) get their plaques,Ƶ Jones said. ƵI want them to experience it because I donƵt want them to hopefully ever have to feel it again. I want them to come back with energy in a month or two and get back in the gym, know what we need to work on. ... hopefully by June, when the three-week period or shootouts come around, these girls think back to whatever today is, March 15, and realize, we want to win a state championship, this is what weƵve got to do.Ƶ
Stacy, Addie Adkins and Brooke Adkins made the all-tournament team from Wayne, joined by NitroƵs Cawley and Smith, Greenbrier EastƵs Ava Workman and GraftonƵs Hadley Horne.
WAYNE 8 15 20 13 Ƶ 56: Sammons 5-10 10-12 22, B. Adkins 7-12 1-2 16, Stacy 3-10 1-4 7, Brown 0-2 0-0 0, A. Adkins 1-3 1-2 3, Blankenship 3-3 2-2 8, Runyon 0-0 0-0 0, Ramey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-40 15-22 56.
NITRO 9 5 13 12 Ƶ 39: Adams 2-5 0-0 4, Gibson 6-10 0-0 16, Cawley 1-11 3-4 5, Edwards 1-6 0-0 3, Smith 2-8 0-0 4, Casto 0-1 0-0 0, Sigmon 2-4 0-0 5, Steele 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 0-1 2-2 2. Totals 14-46 5-6 39.
3-point goals: Wayne 3-12 (Sammons 2-5, B. Adkins 1-2, Stacy 0-3, A. Adkins 0-2), Nitro 6-26 (Adams 0-3, Gibson 4-6, Cawley 0-6, Edwards 1-4, Smith 0-4, Sigmon 1-3). Rebounds: Wayne 26 (B. Adkins 5, A. Adkins 8, Stacy 4, Blankenship 4), Nitro 31 (Cawley 4, Smith 13).
