Hoover’s late shots lift Weir High
Red Riders edge rival Brooke in regular season finale
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WEIRTON -- The young Weir High girls basketball team has grown a lot throughout the course of the season, and it showed as much in Thursday's regular season finale.
Facing a deficit for most of the second half and trying to match up with a much taller Brooke team, the Red Riders scored the final five points -- all from sophomore Rayna Hoover -- to head to tournament time with a 51-49 win, avenging a loss to the Bruins in the season opener to bookend the regular season against Brooke.
"It was a battle," Weir High head coach Rick Stead said. "The girls did a good job. They hustled, they never got excited or hurried and showed a lot of maturity."
Hoover drained a 3-pointer from the corner to knot the score at 49-49 with under a minute to play, then sunk a pair of free throws with 6.4 seconds left for what ended up being the winning points. She finished tied for the game high with 19, dished three assists and pulled down four rebounds.
"She played well," Stead said of Hoover. "She had a big game around mid-season and she's been coming around. I knew she was due to have a breakout night. She really did a great job. She hit the big 3 to tie it, made the clutch free throws, hustled on defense and forced turnovers. She played her butt off and hustled."
The Red Riders (10-12) were able to force 22 Bruins (12-10) turnovers, helping the hosts stay in the game with a chance to pull out the win late despite Brooke out-rebounding Weir High 46-15 in the game and 24-5 on the offensive glass.
"(Brooke) did a great job, it was tough for us going against two bigs like that," Stead said. "They were rebounding well and I was a little concerned it was going to come down to free throws at the end, but we were able come through when it counted.
"We started playing a 1-3-1 mid-season and the girls have started to figure out getting in passing lanes and stuff like that. It's worked out for us. Even when we are in a 2-3 zone, we are able to step in front of people and create some turnovers."
Ava Bolen had a monster night for the Bruins in the loss, matching Hoover's total with 19 points of her own and pulling down more rebounds (21) on her own than the Red Riders had as a team.
The turnovers, though, caught up to the Bruins in the end despite the advantage on the boards.
"It was a battle from the beginning, and we knew it would be," Brooke head coach Amy Serevicz said. "We know anytime we come up here it's going to be a battle, and it's usually late in the season. We had a lead, we lost it, we got it back and tried to stay ahead, but we just could not take care of the ball at the end. We made too many mistakes and you see the score."
Weir netted the first seven points of the game, but the Bruins answered with the next eight points, six coming on a pair of triples from Rylee Schwerfeger (16 points).
Janai Turner (13 points), though, drained a 3-pointer at the first quarter horn to make it an 18-17 Red Rider lead after one.
Brooke then countered with the first 11 points of the second to pull ahead, but Weir has another answer netting the last six points of the half to pull within 28-23 at the break.
Hoover netted a triple to even the score early in the third quarter, but Brooke scored the next six to pull back ahead and it led 42-38 after three.
The Red Riders, though, netted the first four points of the fourth to pull even, then pulled even again at 46-all with about three minutes to play, before Hoover's late shots made the difference.
JV ACTION
The Red Riders took a 28-16 victory in their junior varsity finale, led by Illiona Kirlangitis with 12 points. Zu'Kyra Baltimore also netted 10. Brooke's Elsa Ortiz finished with six.
UP NEXT
Brooke: Travels to Wheeling Park on Tuesday to open the tournament.
Weir High: Will meet Oak Glen for a third time to open tournament action on Monday in New Manchester.