Manchester hosts SHAC Girls Basketball Preview

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

When Dave Hopkins puts on the stripes, fires up his whistle and walks on to the hardwood, it can only mean one thing- it’s time for some basketball! And it was time for some basketball last Friday night at Manchester High School as the Southern Hills Athletic Conference hosted their annual Girls Basketball Preview. All 10 girls teams in the conference were in action, playing the two quarter preview contests that give the players an opportunity to work out some kinks and play for the first time this season in front of a crowd.

The first match up last Friday night saw a pair of Adams County teams on the court as the host team, the Manchester Lady Greyhounds tangled with the Peebles Lady Indians. The match up turned out to be rather one-sided as the Lady Indians coasted to a 27-4 win in two quarters.

Peebles was paced by a pair of seniors, getting 9 points from Angel Gray and 8 from Abigail Smalley, with Smalley draining two early three-pointers. Manchester got two points in the opening period from Mahayla Brown and two in the second stanza from Abby Neria.

“We lost a lot from last year but we are bringing back five seniors,” said Peebles head coach Sidney Pell as she donned the headsets for her radio interview. “I’ve been coaching these seniors for awhile so they know my expectations and we have two juniors and some sophomores and freshmen that will get playing time. I’m just excited to get things going.”

“We have to be sure not to turn the ball over, but we get after it and I think we are going to be in a lot of ball games this year. We have some size or we can go small, we have options.”

“We have a lot of young players and sending them into a varsity contest without any varsity experience can create a bit of a struggle,” said Manchester head coach Jordan Johnson in his postgame radio spot. “I think we are capable of a lot more than we showed tonight but there is just so much more work to be done. We took good shots tonight but we passed up some good shots and just made a lot of little mistakes that we have to clean up. I have faith in this group and don’t think they will give up and our girls are willing to put the work in.”

“We have size and we have to figure out how to use it, and we have to want it more than other teams.”

On the court for the preview’s second match up of the night were Coach Jacob Stout and the West Union Lady Dragons as they faced the Ripley Lady Jays, both teams picked by the SHAC coaches to finish fourth in their respective divisions.

This contest was much more competitive than the first one of the evening, but fairly low-scoring as Ripley came out on top 19-14, perhaps a foreshadowing of a pretty good regular season battle.

The Lady Jays were led by 7 points from speedy point guard Alyssa Fisher and 5 from Callie Fultz. West Union had a quartet of players score 3 points each- Maddie Stout, Olivia Lewis, Annabelle McIntosh and Madison White, with Lewis and White getting their points on three-point goals.

“We have a high energy group and we will run up and down the floor, though we got winded a bit tonight,” Coach Stout told C103 Radio. “We didn’t show anything tonight that we will really do in the regular season and we are hoping our seniors show us a lot of leadership and maturity. We will just have to play as a team and lock it in every single night from one quarter to the next and just give it all we have.”

“If you’re not ready to play every night in this league, you’re going to get beat.”

After match ups between Eastern Brown and Fairfield then Whiteoak and Lynchburg, the most anticipated match up of the night came in the final contest as the two SHAC champions from last season took the floor, chosen by the coaches to repeat as champions again this time around. Last year’s big school champions, the North Adams Lady Devils, who lost just once in the SHAC in 2023-24 were matched up with a very talented squad of Fayetteville Lady Rockets, who won the small school title last season.

The Lady Devils were without senior Katelynn Boerger, who was sidelined with an ankle injury suffered in a scrimmage earlier in the week and Coach Rob Davis’s squad is still searching for the formula to fill the spots and repeat another run to the regional tournament, where they reached the Elite Eight last season in what as then Division III.

On Friday night, the Lady Devils played hard as they always will under Coach Davis, but could never quite overcome an early Fayetteville lead as the Lady Rockets took the two quarters, 32-21.

The Lady Devils were led in scoring by sophomore Emma Pistole, who crashed the boards regularly and tallied 8 points. Senior Karlie Kennedy added 5 as did freshman Jaida Harrison, one of the candidates to replace the departed Kenlie Jones at point guard. North Adams was just 5 for 12 from the free throw line in the half of action.

Fayetteville was led by 9 points from senior Ryley Kleemeyer and got 5 points each from Christina Murphy, Ava Baker and Cara Rummel.

Beginning his 25th year as the North Adams girls head coach, Coach Davis also spoke in a postgame radio spot after the preview action.

“These previews are fun for the kids to get out and play in front of a crowd,” Davis said. “It’s also nice for our fans to see what we have coming up. We didn’t run a whole lot tonight and seemed to be a little tired in the second quarter but you have to play through that. We’re working on stuff with a lot of new kids and it’s a learning experience but I think we’ll be all right. I was pleased with them overall.”

“Fayetteville is going to be a handful for anyone this season. They’re young. quick and athletic and we see them the third game of the season and hopefully we will be at full strength by then.”

The girls regular season will kick off this weekend with Manchester hosting New Boston at 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 23. West Union also opens on Saturday with a 6 p.m. tip off on the road at East Clinton.

Peebles and North Adams will both open on Monday, November 25, with the Lady Indians jumping right into conference play with a trip to Lynchburg, while the Lady Devils will be on their home floor, hosting the South Webster South Webster lady Jeeps.