Lady Colts set for first state tourney
Successful year for girls sports at PB continues on the hardwood
Trending
The Inter-Mountain photo by Joey Kittle
Philip Barbour's Averi Carpenter uses a pick from teammate Mattie Marsh against Elkins earlier this season. The Lady Colts make their first-ever state tourney appearance at 1 p.m. Wednesday against Logan in Charleston.
PHILIPPI -- Philip Barbour's banner run in girls sports for the 2021-22 school year will continue on Wednesday inside the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center.
The seventh-seeded Lady Colts (14-8) will make their first-ever appearance in the girls state basketball tournament at 1 p.m. against No. 2 Logan (22-2) in Class AAA quarterfinal play.
During the fall, the Philip Barbour volleyball (state champions) and girls soccer (state runner-ups) teams enjoyed great success, and several members of both of those squads have joined forces to put the basketball team into the school's history books.
Head coach Rick Mouser's squad is comprised of mostly underclassmen, with only one senior on the roster in Sara Simon, who played goalie for the soccer team and is averaging 6.0 points and 6.1 rebounds on the hardwood.
The Lady Colts take a balanced-scoring attack to Charleston.
Junior Averi Carpenter, an all-state performer in volleyball, leads the way with 10.3 points per game.
Sophomore twin-sisters, Braylyn and Arrington Sparks -- all-state members on the soccer team -- chip in 9.7 and 7.5 points per game, respectively.
Junior Mattie Marsh is hitting for 6.6 ppg., freshman forward MacKenna Halfin, another all-state volleyball player, 5.5 points and a team-high 10 rebounds per outing and sophomore sharpshooter LaDonna Herron 4.2 ppg.
"We are excited for the opportunity to play in Charleston for the first time in program history," Mouser said. "We are going down there loose, just play our type of game and do the things that got us this far."
The Lady Wildcats feature all-state first-team selection and senior guard Peyton Ilderton, who averages 21.7 points per outing. Junior guard Natalie Blankenship, senior guard Abbie Myers and freshman guard Halle Crouse all contribute seven points per game and senior guard Emma Elkins 6.1 ppg.
Wednesday's winner advances to face either sixth-seed Keyser (16-8) or third-seed North Marion (22-2) at 11:15 a.m. Friday in the semifinals.
The rest of the Class AAA quarterfinal matchups are No. 8 Sissonville (11-13) vs. No. 1 Fairmont Senior (23-1) and No. 5 PikeView (16-7) vs. No. 4 Nitro (15-8).