Freshmen, multi-sport athletes lead surging, pressing Winfield girls team - Charleston Gazette-Mail (subscription)

KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail

Winfield’s Meagan Cavender dribbles past Herbert Hoover’s Taylor Carpenter in the Generals’ 77-23 win Thursday night in Elkview.

It was a perfect storm of sorts entering the girls basketball season for Winfield, and coach Shawn Lucas and opponents are having to face the brunt of it early this season.

The Generals’ relentless pressure, depth and athleticism sure does its damage, and did again on Thursday night in a 77-23 win over Herbert Hoover at Elkview Middle School. The Generals forced 43 turnovers and racked up 29 steals.

The win pushed Winfield to 2-0 after an impressive 22-point win over a good Poca team to open the season, marking two key victories over Class AA Region 4 Section 1 and Cardinal Conference opponents.

“We’re young and we’re very deep,” Lucas said. “I’ve consistently been playing nine girls, five of them freshmen.”

That group of ninth graders is certainly a big part of the story so far as five of them helped lead Winfield Middle School to an undefeated season a year ago. That group welcomed in Z.Z. Russell this season, a Hurricane import and a skilled point guard who has led Winfield in scoring in both of its games and had a game-high 17 in the victory over the Huskies on Thursday.

Russell’s primary sport is basketball, which is not the case for the vast majority of Winfield’s team.

Eight players from Winfield’s basketball team, including five freshmen, were members of the soccer squad that last month won its fifth consecutive state championship.

The Winfield soccer team may be best known for its conditioning, spearheaded by track and field coach David Bailey, and with the ninth graders having already been through a season of Bailey’s workouts, running and operating in the Generals’ frantic pressure defense figures to be a breeze. That onslaught paid dividends against Poca as well, as the Dots held a third-quarter lead before Winfield wore them down and pulled away for a 55-33 win.

“We’re extremely fast and we’re extremely athletic and it fits that system of pressing, causing chaos and getting lots of steals,” Lucas said.

At the helm of the operation on the floor for now is a trio of seniors (Mary Lawman, Meagan Cavender and Emily Moore) and a junior (Sydney Cavender) who have plenty of athletic success behind them to pass on to the youngsters.

Lawman was the Kanawha Valley girls soccer player of the year, Sydney Cavender was a fellow first-teamer and Moore has already committed to continue playing softball at West Virginia State.

Each also brings her own set of skills to the basketball floor. Meagan Cavender, Sydney’s older sister, hit the only two 3-pointers of the night on Thursday and Lawman can use her 5-foot-9 frame and athleticism to play all five positions and create a nightmare at the front of the press alongside Russell. Moore, meanwhile, provides an imposing physicality under the basket and Lucas pegged Sydney Cavender as the team’s best defender.

Lawman, who provides a bit of everything for the Generals, had eight points, four assists and eight steals on Thursday, joining Russell for the team lead in the latter category.

Both Moore and Lawman quit basketball for portions of their high school careers, but Lucas coached them in middle school basketball and was able to bring both back out last year.

“The year I didn’t play the program was down and I wanted to help build it back up,” Moore said.

Lawman, who will continue playing soccer at Marshall next year, said she can tell the impact that the chemistry built in the fall and the prior conditioning are having already.

“Going from soccer to basketball, we’re already in shape and we can already run the court better than most teams anyway,” Lawman said. “We kind of take the chemistry from soccer and bring it to basketball. Even though it’s a totally different sport and you do totally different things, we still play together as a team like we do in soccer.”

The Generals’ depth could likely come in handy if foul trouble becomes an issue, which it didn’t on Thursday. That depth showed up in the box score anyway as the starters exited with over five minutes left in the third quarter.

Freshman reserve Mara McGrew led Winfield in assists with seven, fellow freshman reserve Lauren Hudson led the Generals in rebounds with 10 and Hudson’s twin sister Emily backed up Russell’s scoring with 16 points off the bench.

Russell, both Hudsons, McGrew, Emily Bryant and Kalei Jordan all saw significant time on Thursday and will have three more years to hone their skills.

While this season could hold plenty of promise for Winfield, Lawman and Moore said they are taking it upon themselves to ensure the future stays just as bright in the hands of the team’s talented rookies.

“I just tell them that you have to work hard for everything you do,” Lawman said. “We all have talent in this sport and I think if we work hard at it, good things will come.”

“When they mess up and get discouraged, I just try to tell them to keep [their heads] up and do better,” Moore said.

Micah Cutlip led Hoover (0-3) with seven points on Thursday.

Contact Ryan Pritt at 304-348-7948 or ryan.pritt@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @rpritt.