'Maid for the moment: Lewis County advances to state semifinals with win over Philip Barbour

“I thought we were resilient tonight,” Lewis County coach Joe Nichols said. “I thought we fought hard. You look at the stat sheet…I don’t want to look at it, 31 turnovers…but you know what, we found a way to win. That’s what it’s about.”

Ella Pinkney led Lewis County with 20 points and 14 rebounds, while Kenna Maxwell put in 17 points and Emma Pinkney added 10 points and seven rebounds.

Rylee Bodkins scored 20 points for Philip Barbour and Braylyn Sparks added 10 before fouling out amidst a late Colt comeback.

“Rough year. We went through a lot of adversity this year. The girls battled. Happy for their effort, as always. Things just didn’t work out for us today,” PB coach Rick Mouser said. “Didn’t shoot really well, didn’t rebound as well as I thought we would. That’s a pretty good team.”

Philip Barbour missed all 16 of its 3-point attempts.

“They generate a lot of their offense off dribble-drive and we wanted to keep them in front of us,” Nichols said. “We wanted to make them take contested shots.”

The back-and-forth you’d expect from two familiar foes in a 4-vs.-5 game certainly played out early.

Philip Barbour struck first on a Bodkins layup; Lewis County answered with an Ella Pinkney layup; Arrington Sparks scored a layup; Alexis Piggie converted a jumper and Buckhannon-Upshur transfer Maxwell hit a 3; Braylyn Sparks scored a layup and Arrington Sparks hit two free throws.

Down 8-7, Lewis County put together the game’s first sustained run as Ella Pinkney tallied a layup, Emma Pinkney a tip-in and Ella Pinkney a 3-pointer give the Minutemaids a 14-8 lead with 2:08 left in a frenetic first quarter.

Lewis County kept that six-point lead after one, 16-10, when Piggie put back a miss at the buzzer.

The offense didn’t carry over as much to the second quarter.

After an exchange of layups by Braylyn Sparks and Ella Pinkney, Bodkins scored the next five to pull the Colts within one, 18-17 with 1:54 left in the half.

“At first, we were a little slow handling the ball,” Ella Pinkney said. “Once we got a few shots up and we got in our press break, the ball was moving around from side to side. It was working for a little bit and then they came back a little bit.”

Ella Pinkney and Braylyn Sparks traded baskets, then, after a Emma Pinkney free throw and jumper, Lewis County carried a four-point edge, 23-19, to the half.

Ella Pinkney led all scorers with 11 points at the half, plus 10 rebounds, for Lewis County, while Bodkins’ seven points topped PB’s efforts.

The two teams combined for 32 turnovers, 19 by Lewis County and 13 by Philip Barbour, with the Colts getting 15 of their 19 points off of those mistakes and the Minutemaids cashing in nine.

Bodkins cut it to two with a bank shot, but Maxwell canned a 3 the other way: 26-21, 6:49 left.

After another Bodkins basket, Ella Pinkney’s 3 was overcome by four straight points from Braylyn Sparks: 29-27 LC, 4:44 left in the third.

A Maxwell layup was followed by two Ella Pinkney free throws – resulting from Braylyn Sparks’ fourth foul – then Izzy Knotts scored her first PB points at a key juncture, trimming the lead to 33-29 with 3:20 on the clock.

Ella Pinkney and Knotts exchanged 2s, then a great combination between Arrington Sparks and Bodkins yanked it back to a one-possession game.

“Arrington Sparks is a force in that diamond press. She can cover sideline-to-sideline within seconds and Braylyn Sparks is just as fast,” Nichols said.

But Emma Pinkney scored a hoop with harm and converted the 3-point play with 35.4 ticks to go.

Bodkins continued her clutch night the other way, her layup cutting the lead to 38-35 heading to the fourth.

And then Ella Pinkney did the same with a slaloming finish to open the fourth quarter: 40-35.

Lewis County then grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck: Payton Goodwin scored her first points of the game with a layup, then Maxwell put away a tough finish to balloon the lead to 44-35 with 5:36 left.

After a Maxwell free throw, Philip Barbour kept hope alive with Bodkins and Knotts layups, the latter with 4:28 to go, to cut it back to six.

“Rylee played really well today,” Mouser said. “She’s a slasher, she can get to the bucket, she can help on the boards, she does a little bit of everything.”

A deep 2 from Bodkins, assisted by Braylyn Sparks, and it was a 45-41 game.

The message in the Lewis County huddle?

“Rebound and take care of the ball, especially in that fourth quarter. We wanted to get more time of possession, didn’t want to force anything. We also wanted to limit them to one attempt per possession and I thought we did a good job of that,” Nichols said after his team held a 42-25 edge on the glass. “We took care of the ball late, had a couple of turnovers, saved a couple with a few timeouts, but found a way.”

Braylyn Sparks fouled out with 2:06 to go and Maxwell converted both attempts.

After Bodkins split two at the line with 1:59 left, both teams turned the ball over.

Lewis County burned two timeouts on its next possession, then Emma Pinkney turned and scored to give the Minutemaids a seven-point cushion with 1:02 left.

Philip Barbour ends its third straight state tournament at 15-9.

“We had a really good start to the season, then we had a rough spot where we lost five in a row and then, at the end, they kicked it back in and worked their way down here,” Mouser said. “I’m proud of them.”

“Hats off to Philip Barbour,” Nichols said. “They have so many great athletes.”

Lewis County (23-3) faces No. 1 East Fairmont in an all-Big 10 semifinal on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.