Manchester freshman Lyrric Hanson fires off a three-pointer as the Lady Hounds battled West Union in the November 14 Southern Hills Athletic Conference Girls Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
West Union’s Maddie Stout (20) scores on a layup over Manchester’s Bella Hughes (30) as the two county squads faced off in the SHAC preview on November 14. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles’ Paysen Shively (23) pushes the ball up the court as the Lady Indians matched up with Lynchburg-Clay in the 2025-26 Southern Hills Athletic Conference Girls Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams freshman Tenzlee Burns (10) looks for room to get around a Fayetteville defender as last year’s SHAC champions battled in the annual SHAC Girls Preview. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
“High Hopes. We’ve got high hopes. High apple pie in the sky hopes.” Those lyrics could have been the motto for all 10 of the girls basketball teams from the Southern Hills Athletic Conference who gathered at Ripley High School on Friday, November 14 for the annual SHAC Girls Basketball Preview. The preview format has not changed, each match up lasting just two quarters but played under normal game circumstances, eight minute quarters with regular season rules. Unlike in some past seasons, this preview’s games were all competitive and entertaining for the fans.
The initial match up of the evening pitted a pair of Adams County squads, the West Union Lady Dragons and the Manchester Lady Greyhounds. The Greyhounds have a short and young roster while the Lady Dragons’ roster contains five seniors and four juniors. In Friday night’s preview battle, the Lady Dragons took a 4-0 lead, while the Lady Hounds missed four consecutive free throws that would have tied the game. Manchester got on the board with 5:35 left in the first period, getting a three-point bucket from freshman Hayden Rideout. West Union responded with a long ball of their own from Violet Randolph to go up 7-3. a putback bucket from the Lady Hounds’ Maddi Curtis later cut the West Union lead to 10-7, but the Lady Dragons ended the first quarter on a 8-4 run that included an Annabelle McIntosh three-pointer, and they led 18-11 after one.
West Union extended their lead by scoring the first five points of the second frame, capped by a Maddie Stout steal and score. Another McIntosh three-ball pushed the margin to 26-13 as all the Lady Hounds could muster through that span was free throws from freshmen Maddie Easter and Lyrric Hanson. Manchester missed 10 free throws in the half of action which certainly could have made a difference in the final outcome. The final points of the half were a three-pointer by the Lady Hounds’ Bella Hughes as West Union ended up on top 28-19.
“We’re just trying to be a bit more competitive and I thought we did that tonight,” said Manchester head coach Jordan Johnson in his postgame radio spot. “We missed a ton of shots and a bunch of free throws but I think you’ll have that with young teams. I’m just glad that we are putting a better product out on the floor.”
“Having only seven girls on the roster has been difficult but I can see the growth in our team already.”
“I’m just pushing our girls to get better and better,” West Union head coach Jacob Stout explained in his own postgame radio chat with c-103. “Our girls have really bonded together and have great attitudes and we want to get that winning record that has been so elusive recently. We have to be more aggressive this season and not just sit back and let the game come to us.”
Manchester Scoring (19)- Rideout 5, Hanson 3, Curtis 2, Brown 3, Easter 3, Hughes 3
W. Union Scoring (28)- McIntosh 13, Randolph 4, Hall 5, Stout 6
The second match up of the preview saw the Peebles Lady Indians battling the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs, both teams picked by the coaches to finish fourth in their respective divisions. this half was an exciting on, coming right down to the final six seconds of the second quarter before being decided.
Peebles took an early lead on an Alyssa Smalley three-point basket before Lynchburg answered with a Addy Carraher triple to go up 7-3. Behind baskets from Paysen Shively and Kendall Myers, the Lady Indians battled back to take a 15-11 lead and by the end of the first stanza, Peebles had extended their advantage to 21-16, a very productive quarter considering the offensive issues the Lady Indians had last season.
Smalley and Carraher began the second period with consecutive three-pointers and Smalley added another trey on her team’s second possession. The Lady Mustangs responded with a 10-0 run to tie the score at 27 before yet another Smalley three-pointer put Peebles back in front. A later three from Carraher tied the score at 32 late and with the chance to take a lead, the two teams swapped turnovers. The Lady Mustangs held the ball for a final winning shot and drew a Peebles foul with 6.8 seconds to play in the half. Lynchburg’s Madison McMullen stepped to the line and calmly sank both shots and the Lady Mustangs hung on to win the half 34-32.
“I think we’re going in the right direction,” said Peebles head coach Sidney Pell in her radio interview. “We’ve had a pretty good preseason, been running ragged a little bit and there’s plenty of things to work on but we’re getting better. Our kids play really hard and I have some scorers, some girls who want the ball. Last year we struggled to score and we just put up 34 in a half when sometimes last year we’d struggle to get 34 in an entire game. We have to get better defensively, we just seemed to be a step slow tonight.”
“Our league is pretty strong and you had better show up to play every night.”
Peebles Scoring- Carroll 2, Smalley 16, Myers 8, Shively 6
Lynchburg-Clay Scoring- Ferguson 4, Bell 6, Mclaughlin 2, McMullen 8, Carraher 14
The next two match ups did not involve county squads as Fairfield defeated Ripley 31-24 and Eastern Brown edged Whiteoak, setting up the final half of the night between the two teams picked to win the SHAC, the North Adams Lady Devils and the
Fayetteville Lady Rockets, both of whom won conference championships last season.
The regular season contest this season between North Adams and Fayetteville should be a classic if the two quarters of preview play were any indication. After the Lady Devils went up 8-4 on a bucket from freshman Sophia Barlow, the Lady Rockets reeled off the final seven points of the opening period to lead 11-8 after one.
After a three-pointer from North Adams’ Jacee Davis opened the second frame with a three-ball that tied the game, Fayetteville went on another run, this time 8-0, to lead 19-11. Right back came the Lady Devils with a 7-0 spurt of their own led by a Barlow three-pointer to pull back within one. From that point on, it was a back and forth battle with the Lady Devils taking a 22-21 lead on a pair of free throws from freshman Tenzlee Burns. The Lady Rockets went back in front on two free tosses from Christina Murphy, only to see North Adams move back on top on two more charity tosses from Burns. That set up the final basket of the game, a running left-handed layup from Murphy that gave the Lady Rockets the 25-24 win.
“I liked our effort tonight,” North Adams head coach Rob Davis told c-103 Radio in the postgame. “We let our kids kind of do their thing tonight and really didn’t run a whole lot of stuff. We played hard and we did what we came in to do and I think we learned some things. With no seniors coming back, we need some girls to step up and take some leadership roles for us.”
“I was pleased with the way we played, we got down and then came back. We have some kids that will just keep getting batter and better.”
North Adams Scoring- E. Pistole 8, Davis 3, Barlow 5, Burns 8
Fayetteville Scoring- Lindi Carlier 7, Barber 4, Lilly Carlier 2, Crawford 2, Murphy 8, Waddell 2
The regular season begins first for the Peebles Lady Indians as they will be hosting Coal Grove at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 22. North Adams will open on November 24 with a trip to Portsmouth West, followed up the next night with a trip to West Union for the opener for the Lady Dragons. Manchester opens their 2025-26 campaign on November 25 with a road trip to Peebles.
