North Adams’ Avery Harper keeps Manchester defender Summer Wilbur at arm’s length during girls varsity summer league basketball action on June 22 at North Adams High School.

Peebles’ McKinlee Ryan makes herself a defensive presence in the paint as she and the Lady Indians battled Manchester in summer league action on June 22 at North Adams High School.

Peebles’ Baylee Justice looks for an opening to get down the lane for a shot as the Lady Indians tangled with the Manchester Lady Hounds in summer league action on June 22.

Further proof that basketball has become a year-round sport for everyone was the conclusion last week of the Girls Varsity Summer League. Nine teams from a three-county area participated, with-each team taking turns at hosting on one of the four Mondays (June 1, 8, 15, 22) on which games were played.

Because of work schedules, vacation, and various other responsibilities, it is often difficult for teams to get their whole squads together every night but the nine teams who managed to play in the summer league were Lynchburg Clay, Eastern Brown, Hillsboro, Williamsburg, Fairfield, Ripley, and from Adams County, North Adams, Peebles, and Manchester. A lot of the buzz in the league was the play of Coach Whitney Lewis and her Lynchburg Lady Mustangs, who many coaches referred to as just plain “loaded.”

The only night where the three Adams County teams were in the same gymnasium together came on the league’s final night, June 22, as North Adams played host to Peebles and Manchester. In the evening’s first match up, it was the host Lady Devils rolling past the Lady Hounds 55-30. The best match up of the night was the middle game where Peebles rallied in the second half to pull out a 42-37 win over Manchester, and then in the final tilt of the summer league, North Adams defeated the Lady Indians 47-17.

Overall, North Adams head coach Rob Davis was happy with his team’s play in the eight summer league contests.

“We played pretty well but we have to get better defensively,” said Davis. “The kids played hard and I was pleased with that because sometimes in summer leagues, it is hard to get them to play hard, but our kids did and I was happy with that.”

Manchester head coach Shawn Palmer, playing with a very young group, saw good things out of his future 2015-16 team.

“We had a pretty good month of June,” said Palmer. “We got in 26 games playing a lot of them with two seniors and the rest freshmen. We may have a lot of trouble scoring, and some of our games may be ugly, but we will battle.”

“Our seniors, Morgan Johnson and Summer Wilbur, have been great leaders for our younger kids and I couldn’t ask for more from them.”

In the summer league format, each team got to play two games on all four Mondays, with the game consisting of a pair of 20-minute halves.