Pioneers host Freedom,

then take to the road
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

The biggest part of Watauga’s basketball season begins Friday.

That’s when the Pioneers host rival Freedom in a Northwestern 4-A Conference showdown at Lentz-Eggers Gym. Watauga will follow with a non-conference game at Wilkes Central, but will go back to its NWC slate the following Tuesday at home against McDowell.

It’s a chance for both the boys’ and girls’ teams to put to use any lessons learned during their non-conference games. The boys have built a 5-6 record thus far after falling to Roanoke Catholic in the finals of the Watauga Classic last Friday.

Pioneers coach Rob Sanders would like to see his team play with more consistency. The Pioneers have played well in 24 minutes of several games, but have struggled during one eight-minute quarter in their last three games. Against Roanoke Catholic and in a loss to Ashe County, the third quarter has been the Pioneers’ stumbling block.

Roanoke Catholic outscored Watauga 24-8 in the third quarter and used it to claim a 62-53 victory.

Watauga outscored Roanoke 20-15 in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough to overtake the Celtics.

“It’s been like that the past three or four games,” Rob Sanders said after the game. “We’re coming out of the locker room and we can’t get any of the momentum back that we had going into the locker room.”

Watauga’s girls’ team has built plenty of momentum after winning the Watauga Classic. They beat West Stokes in the first game and cruised past Starmount 62-44 in the championship game after opening a 19-6 lead.

The Pioneers (6-5) got balanced scoring by everybody who took the court against Starmount as every Watauga player reached the scoring column. Ashlyn Baird, who buried four 3-point baskets, led the Pioneers with 18 points in the victory.

“I felt that if we could push the tempo, I felt good about our defense and we played one of the best first quarters we’ve ever had,” Pioneers coach Klay Anderson said.

It helped that the Pioneers raced out to a 15-0 lead. That will be tough to do against Freedom, which has one of the top players in North Carolina in Ali Ford.

The senior led the Patriots (6-6) into the Bojangles Classic at Marvin Ridge last week. The Patriots did not win any games, but they also faced some of the top teams in the area, such as West Charlotte and Providence Day.

In a 78-49 loss to West Charlotte, Ford finished with 22 points, while Chelsea Connelly had 17. Anderson knows that the Patriots will be a team looking to get back to their winning ways.

“Their record is misleading,” Anderson said. “The teams they’ve played are really talented. It’s a good measuring stick for them as to where they are, and it’s no secret what their strength is in terms of Ali Ford and the players they’ve got around her.”

Anderson is happy with how his players have responded to the first half of their schedule. The Pioneers have already won six games, one more than they won all of last season.

“Winning six games was already a goal because they wanted to win more than they did last year,” Anderson said. “Now they’ve got their sights on doing some damage in the conference.”