Tucker claims crown
KEYSER — Union High School senior Colleena Burdock scored a game-high 25 points on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to stop Tucker County from claiming a Class A Region II Section 2 title with a 52-33 win.
The Lady Mountain Lions’ record improved to 21-3, while still having zero losses against Class A opponents this season.
“We had a good game and we packed Keyser High School’s gym with fans,” TCHS coach Jim Ambrose said. “Everybody came out to support both teams, it was a great game.”
“Union has a real nice player in Colleena Burdock. She’s a special kid and a great basketball player. We put Cecily Strawderman on her, and I think Cecily played great, and got better at the assignment as the game went along,” he continued.
Burdock shot 12 for 12 at the foul line in the first half on her way to scoring 16 of the Lady Tigers’ 18 points recorded in the opening half. Tucker County led 15-8 after the first quarter, and went further head to be up 28-18 at intermission.
Third period action saw the Mountain Lions clamp down further, only allowing 2 points by Union before taking a 40-20 advantage into the final frame.
Sydney Nestor paced Tucker with team highs in points (16) and assists (6), pulled down 6 rebounds, and made 8 of 12 at the charity stripe. Elizabeth Nichols also turned in a nicely balanced stat sheet with 14 points (4-for-4 free throws), 5 boards and 5 blocked shots sent to the rejection bin.
Terra Kuhn also reached double figures with 10 points and 5 rebounds, while Sydney Moore led TCHS in the rebounding column with 9 while chipping in 4 points.
Next up for the Lady Mountain Lions will be a co-regional championship game on Thursday when they play host to a 16-8 Trinity Christian School squad. Tipoff on the mountain at TCHS is set for 7 p.m. A win by Tucker would secure the program’s 13th consecutive berth into the state tournament.
“The loser goes home, and the winner goes to Charleston, it’s do or die time from now on,” Ambrose said. “We’re going to do some running on Monday, and we will watch film and go hard on Tuesday. Wednesday will be a lighter day, and we just have to be ready to take on the Warriors on Thursday at our place.”