Season ends for girls

The Berkeley Springs Girls Basketball Team got off to a slow start against Frankfort, in the opening round of the Region II, Section 1, basketball tournament, on Tuesday, February 21, in Ridgeley. The slow start proved fatal, as the Indians were never able to overtake their longtime rival and were eliminated from the postseason, 39-27.

"It is disappointing, but I am proud of this team," said Berkeley Springs Coach Dale McCumbee. “They faced a lot of adversity and should be proud of what they accomplished."

The Indians began the game attempting to slow things down, because of the recent injury to Deidra Burch, but turnovers converted into points by the Lady Falcons forced Berkeley Springs out of that game plan.

"We tried to spread the court and make them come out and play, but we turned it over and they got an early lead which forced us to change our plan," McCumbee said. “Deidra still wasn't one hundred percent and Sydne (Yanez) was just returning. Neither had practiced more than 40 minutes in the past week, so we thought we would take a little air out of the ball. But, it is necessary you protect the ball utilizing that strategy and we didn't do that."

While the Indians struggled, Frankfort converted on the offensive end and ended the first quarter on top 13-4.

Berkeley Springs settled down in the second quarter and cut the Falcon lead to 21-14 at the half.

"We didn't play our best half of basketball in the first half, so we felt good going into the halftime intermission down by only seven points," McCumbee said.

After the break, Berkeley Springs continued to chip away at the lead and trailed by just six points, 27-21 heading into the final period.

The Indians closed to within four points of their Mineral County foe, 29-25, with just under five minutes remaining, but Frankfort ended the game on a 10-2 run and advanced to the sectional title game with the 12-point victory.

"You have to take your hats off to Frankfort," said McCumbee. “They are a good team and they deserved the win. It just wasn't meant to be for us.” Having said, “we simply didn't take advantage of our opportunities. We could not make a shot. I thought our defense played well, but we really struggled offensively. Anytime you only have three players score points, it's going to be an uphill battle. We didn't lose this game due to a lack of effort. We simply struggled shooting the basketball."

Burch led the Indians with 13 points, three steals, two rebounds and two assists. Casey Solomon added 10 points and five rebounds, while Lauren Schetrompf rounded out the offense with four points. Brittaney Napfel and Sydne Yanez had five and four rebounds respectively.

Sadie Whiteman and Mikala Miller led Frankfort with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Berkeley Springs ended the season with a 12-11 record.