NA’s Davis is Coach of Year, six local girls earn All-Conference honors – 

By Mark Carpenter – 

As is the custom at the end of every season, the girls varsity basketball coaches from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference met recently to cast their votes for the 2017-18 All-Conference Team. When the votes were cast, six young ladies from Adams County squads earned All-Conference honors, while the SHAC Coach of the Year also comes from a county school.
Two young ladies from the Manchester Lady Greyhounds were named All-Conference, both of them freshmen, which certainly bodes well for the team’s future. Brooke Kennedy, a 6’0” freshman, averaged a double-double of 12.2 points and 12.2 rebounds per game to earn her spot on the All-SHAC squad. Teammate Sydnie Cox, a 6’1” freshman, matched Kennedy in the double-double category, averaging 10.8 points and 10 rebounds per game, giving the Lady Hounds quite a 1-2 punch, and allowing Cox to gain her All-SHAC recognition, and the Lady Hounds to finish in a second place tie in the small school division of the conference.

Another outstanding Adams County freshman led the way for the Peebles Lady Indians and was named to the All-SHAC Team. In her rookie season at the varsity level, 5’7” freshman Jacey Justice put up some impressive statistics, averaging 19.0 points a game in the regular season, shooting 53% from the field overall and 41% from three-point range (37 made), plus 79% from the foul line, on a Peebles team that advanced to the district finals in Division IV for the first time since 1998, and tied with Manchester for second place in the small school division.
It seems as if the North Adams duo of Lakyn Hupp and Avery Harper have been linked together since grade school, and they are together again as members of the SHAC’s All-Conference squad. The dynamic senior duo led the Lady Devils to a 20-4 record and their fourth consecutive district championship game. In the regular season, Hupp averaged 16.5 points a game, with Harper adding 14.6 and 9 rebounds per contest, and they both reached the 1,000 point plateau, remarkably in the same game.

The Lady Devils won a share of their seventh consecutive SHAC title, this time in the big school division, and had a third player named to the All-SHAC team in 5’11” junior Grace McDowell. McDowell averaged 9.2 points a game in the regular season and grabbed 4.6 rebounds per contest. She will return to North Adams in 2018-19 for her senior campaign.
In a season which saw him pick up his 250th career win, North Adams head coach Rob Davis led his team to that 20-4 finish and a first-place tie with Eastern Brown in the SHAC’s big school division with a 12-2 conference mark. The mild-mannered but often animated Davis was chosen by his fellow coaches as the Coach of the Year in the conference.
The remainder of the Girls All-Conference Team includes: Whitney Broughton (Eastern Brown), Carlee Daulton (Ripley), Mikayla Farris (Eastern Brown), Zoe Fittro (Lynchburg), Cecilia Murphy (Fayetteville), Alexa Pennington (Eastern Brown), Morgan Reynolds (Eastern Brown), Peyton Scott (Lynchburg), and Grace Shope (Fairfield).
The SHAC Player of the Year will be named at the conference’s Winter Sports Awards which will be held this Sunday, March 11, at 4 p.m. at Fairfield High School.
(Look for the SHAC Boys All-Conference Team in a future issue of The People’s Defender.)

2017-18 Girls Final Standings
Division I
North Adams 12-1
Eastern Brown 12-1
Lynchburg 9-4
Ripley 2-11
West Union 2-11

Division II
Fairfield 10-3
Manchester 7-6
Peebles 7-6
Fayetteville 4-9
Whiteoak 0-13