By Dan Stillwell
It took Class AAA No. 1 North Marion a quarter to get used to the goals at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center Wednesday night.
Then the Huskies torched them.
North Marion opened the second quarter with five 3-point goals in a five-minute stretch en route to defeating No. 4 Huntington 64-54 in a first-round game of the Big Atlantic Classic.
“We can shoot in streaks,” coach Steve Parrish said after his team captured a rematch of last season’s AAA state championship game. “When we get a hot streak, we’re pretty hot.”
Down 10-8 after the opening quarter, North Marion ran off 10 unanswered points before all-state center Talequia Hamilton sank a jumper at the 4:40 mark.
The Huskies followed that with consecutive threes from all-stater Mariah Byard, Kelli Wright and Courtney Swiger to make it 27-12.
“There were a lot of nerves tonight,” Parrish said. “We started off hesitant before we’d penetrate, hesitant before we’d pass or shoot. We had to get into the flow of the game.”
North Marion (15-1) finished the half with a 31-19 lead and extended its advantage to 19, 42-23, following a three and a fast-break bucket by Swiger.
While the Huskies finished the game with nine 3-pointers, it was North Marion’s transition baskets that most concerned Huntington coach Lonnie Lucas.
“We’ve played teams that have made nine 3-pointers,” Lucas said. “But we’re slow and they got a lot of runouts on us.”
Huntington all-stater Erin Bailes scored 11 of her game-high 22 points in the final period as the Highlanders made it respectable.
Hamilton scored 13 points and added 13 rebounds. Leah Ching also had 13 points.
The 13-4 Highlanders committed 18 turnovers to 11 for the Huskies.
“You can’t make as many mistakes as we did against North Marion,” Lucas said. “I’m surprised we stayed within 10 or 12 points of them.”
It was Huntington’s first-ever loss in the tournament, formerly the Coal Classic. The Highlanders won four consecutive championships from 2005-2008.
The Huskies’ balanced attack received 18 points from Swiger, 17 from Byard, 15 from Wright and 10 from Hailey Garrett.
Byard also had 11 rebounds and nine assists.
“We had a lot of open looks,” Parrish said. “We like running, shooting threes ... Anything we can get.”
North Marion defeated Huntington 66-64 last March in the state championship game in Charleston.
— E-mail:dstillwell@
register-herald.com
North Marion 64, Huntington 54
North Marion (15-1)
Kelsi Wright 4-18 4-8 15, Hailey Garrett 4-8 2-2 10, Mariah Byard 5-11 4-4 17, Kaitlyn Antolock 2-10 0-0 4, Courtney Swiger 7-13 1-1 18, MacKenzie Mullenax 0-1 0-0 0, Paige Tuttle 0-1 0-0 0, Alexis Steele 0-1 0-0 0, Dalaysha Goines 0-0 0-0 0, Tannay Daniels 0-1 0-0 0. Totals:22-64 11-15 64.
Huntington (13-4)
Leah Ching 4-17 3-4 13, Abigail Steel 0-3 0-0 0, Anitra Hawarny 2-7 0-0 4, Erin Bailes 9-17 2-2 22, Talequia Hamilton 6-12 1-3 13, Kiana Evans 0-0 0-0 0, Dominque Gibson 0-2 2-2 2. Totals: 21-58 8-11 54.
NM 8 23 17 16 — 64
H 10 9 14 21 — 54
Three-point goals: NM: 9 (Wright 3, Byard 3, Swiger 3); H: 4 (Ching 2, Bailes 2); Fouled out: None.
