Peebles’ Abigail Smalley fires in 0ne of her four three-pointers in the Lady Indians’ win over Manchester. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

Peebles’ Abigail Smalley fires in 0ne of her four three-pointers in the Lady Indians’ win over Manchester. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

<p>Manchester’s Raegan Wikoff turns the corner around a pair of Peebles defenders in action for the Lady Hounds’ 52-21 loss to the Lady Indians. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)</p>

Manchester’s Raegan Wikoff turns the corner around a pair of Peebles defenders in action for the Lady Hounds’ 52-21 loss to the Lady Indians. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The 2023024 season is off to a roaring start for Coach Sidney Pell and her Peebles Lady Indians varsity girls basketball squad. After dropping their season opener to Lynchburg 62-57 in overtime, the Lady Indians have reeled off our straight wins, three of them in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference (Fairfield, North Adams and Manchester) and the other a 65-2 shellacking of Western Latham in non-conference action.

The win over North Adams on December 4 was a thriller with Peebles overcoming a double-digit deficit to hang on late for a 38-35 victory. The two teams will meet again in Seaman this Thursday (December 14) and could very possibly see a third meeting of the month in the upcoming Holiday Classic.

The Lady Indians traveled to Manchester on December 7 and were missing a very important piece of their arsenal, Coach Pell who was hospitalized at the time. Assistant Coach Adam Carroll stepped right ion to the sideline duties and led the Tribe to a convincing victory.

At the Hound Pound, the Lady Indians got off to a slow start before taking control late in the opening period, ending the frame with a 10-1 run. The Peebles offense didn’t lose a beat as the second quarter opened, scoring the first 14 points to take a commanding 28-5 advantage. The only points of the second quarter for Manchester came from Mahayla Brown at the two-minute mark, but a bucket by Payton Johnson put Peebles up 30-7 at the break.

In the third quarter, the Peebles offensive bombardment went beyond the arc as they drained a quartet of three-point goals, two each from and Abigail Smalley. The Lady Indians finished period three with a 1-0 run to lead 49-13.

With the running clock now in effect, the final eight minutes went quickly, but the Lady Hounds had time to get a pair of three-pointers from Reagan Wikoff and two free throws from Brown to make the final count 52-21 for the visiting Lady Indians.

On Saturday, December 9 the Lady Indians hosted another group of Lady Indians, these from Western Latham High School and the results were rather painful to see. The Western girls didn’t manage a field goal the entire game, getting just two free throws, as the home team took a 65-2 win to improve their season mark to 4-1.

The aforementioned trip to North Adams is the next scheduled stop for Coach Pell and her troops, followed up by a trip to Fayetteville on December 2, both conference games.

Peebles

14 16 19 3 —62

Manchester

5 2 6 8 —21

Peebles (52): R. Barr 1 0-0 2, Johnson 10 4-6 28, Abigail Smalley 4 0-0 12, 1 0-4 2, Gray 3 2-2 8, Team 19 6-12 52.

Manchester (21): Dunn 0 0-2 0, Horner 0 1-4 1, Wikoff 3 0-0 9, Neria 2 0-2 4, Brown 2 3-4 7, Team 7 4-10 21.

Three-Point Goals:

Peebles (8)- Johnson 4, Smalley 4

Manchester (3)- Wikoff 3