KEYSER, W.Va. — Keyser head coach Josh Blowe became the first coach in school history with 200 career wins in a 62-44 Golden Tornado win over Petersburg on Tuesday.
“The success at the top is great, but everything underneath it is so important,” Blowe said. “That’s the hard work, the persistence, discipline, criticism, drive and passion to work hard every single day, every single year.”
Blowe made it clear that it’s a group effort and credited both his current and former players and coaches for their role.
“The coaching staff right now is as locked in and focused as one unit, I couldn’t be more pleased with everybody around me,” Blowe said. “Kind of use the analogy of a running back in football. They get a lot of the credit, but the line does all the work.”
The No.3 Tornado (11-5) was dominant in the second quarter, taking a commanding lead over the No. 5 Vikings (11-6).
Blowe earned his 100th win on Dec. 27, 2016 over Tucker County who was ranked No. 2 at the time.
Blowe is the first coach to win 200 games at Keyser since it consolidated in 1976.
Blowe said that Terry LaRue won 112 games over 11 seasons at Keyser. LaRue won 149 at Piedmont High.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Blowe said. “The thing is, you have a lot of ups and downs over the years. One of the best things is my first year, we won four games. The year before, we won two. To see us build off that first year into four, nine, 13 wins, to see that growth in the beginning has been amazing.”
Now in year 14, Blowe earned win No. 200 over Petersburg who entered No. 10 in the Class AA coaches poll and No. 5 in the area poll.
While the scoreboard shows a convincing victory, it didn’t look like it after one quarter.
Keyser opened the game slow, missing several layups and committing six turnovers. Up 5-4 after Autumn Kerchner hit a pair of free throws, the Tornado ended the quarter on a 9-5 run and led 14-9.
Bibs Felton took over in the second quarter on both ends. She scored 17 of her 19 first-half points in the quarter, also adding a pair of steals and a block.
“Bibs was phenomenal in that second quarter,” Blowe said. “Getting to the rim, making jump shots, hitting 3s off the screen, she’s fun to watch.”
She finished with a game-high 26 points, four steals, three assists and two blocks.
As of Saturday, Jan. 27, Felton ranked fourth in the area averaging 17.4 points per game. The freshman has been a standout for Keyser this season.
“First off, to come in and start as a freshman, there haven’t been too many girls to do that,” Blowe said. “Bibs is one of the best finishers, regardless of class I’ve ever coached. She’s one of the best flat out scorers regardless of class. She’s just scratching the surface of her potential in the game of basketball.”
Felton helped the Tornado open the second quarter with 11 unanswered points. She either scored or assisted on all but one basket.
Kerchner scored 10 points in the first half and finished with 14, two steals and a block.
“Autumn’s been great since we went to East Fairmont for our classics,” Blowe said. “The first game out there, she scored four points. She was disappointed, we went back and corrected some things. It’s been five games and she’s averaging about 13 or 14 a game.”
Keyser outscored Petersburg 27-7 in the second quarter and led 41-16 at halftime.
The Vikings struggled offensively in the first half, committing 12 turnovers and shooting 26% from the field.
The Tornado also struggled with turnovers, committing 11. However, they shot 48% from the field in the first half.
Petersburg outscored Keyser 11-10 in the third quarter and 17-11 in the fourth.
“It has been a concern of mine, we’ve built a great halftime lead, we’re playing with energy and passion,” Blowe said. “We get to half winning big, we kind of come down for some reason. We gotta find a way to correct it. But when it’s a tight game or we’re losing, in the third quarter we usually make up a lot of ground.”
Ayden Mayfield had a big fourth quarter for the Vikings, scoring 12 of her 13 points in the final eight minutes.
Abby Alt scored nine points and Sam Colaw and Miley Tingler each had seven.
The Tornado head to Berkeley Springs for the beginning of a five-game road trip beginning on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
They are 7-1 at home but 4-4 outside of Keyser.
“Maturity one, confidence two, energy three,” Blowe said of what he hopes to see during this stretch. “We hit three road games in four days. We’re really going to find out what kind of team we are away from here which we’ve been almost dominant this year.”
The Vikings play Tucker County in back-to-back games. The Mountain Lions are currently ranked No. 3 in the West Virginia coaches poll. The series begins in Petersburg on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.