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charleston — Chad Meador acknowledged during a post-game press conference that points had come at a premium in the game which had just unfolded.

And Meador’s No. 1-seeded Summers County Bobcats might have been tempted to try to nurse a nine-point lead (25-16) they had assembled through three quarters against No. 8 Frankfort at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center in the first round of the Class AA portion of the girls state basketball tournament.

The Bobcats didn’t leave anything to chance, however, and continued to push the pace and eventually captured a 46-29 victory to advance to play No. 5 Charleston Catholic in the semifinal round Friday at 11:15 a.m.

“When we went up three possessions, I felt a little bit more relaxed ‘cause points were at a premium, but we’re not the greatest at holding the basketball so we, we typically try to run some offense, at least try to hit the open man,” Meador said. “We were kind of in a 5-wide set there; we ran our drop set, tried to take some time off the clock, but I tell ya, we eventually just found the open man, put a couple shots in the basket and I think we loosened their defense up.

“That obviously wasn’t their game plan. Their game plan was to play that 3-2. That was for a reason, so I thought we pushed them out of their comfort zone late in the game.”

“We were like we want to win this game,” said Summers County’s Sullivan Pivont. “We don’t want to go home.”

After Frankfort pulled to within 27-18 early in the fourth, the Bobcats began asserting themselves and placing more distance between themselves and the Falcons. A 12-6 run staked Summers County to a 39-24 lead with 2:24 to go. To get to that point, Abby Persinger scored inside for a 33-20 Bobcat lead, then Summers County’s Liv Meador converted a fast break to make it 35-21 with 3:28 remaining.

A key stretch for the Bobcats occurred shortly after Frankfort trimmed the deficit back to 11, 35-24. Pivont hit a deuce after an observant Meador threw the outlet pass up ahead, with the margin standing at 37-24 after Pivont missed the ensuing foul shot. However, her teammate, Grace Harvey, rebounded that errant freebie for Summers and scored to make it 39-24, and Frankfort could never get back to within single digits.

Harvey closed with a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double for the ‘Cats, and Meador scored 10 points and assisted on five goals. Also, Avery Lilly scored nine, and Pivont netted eight points and blocked four shots.

Larae Grove and Jillian Alt scored 10 each for the Falcons (13-13).

“What you’ve seen today is what we’ve looked like since December,” Chad Meador said. “We don’t look very pretty.” Later, he added, “We’re playing on Friday; we’re pretty excited.”

“We played good defense,” said Frankfort coach Steve Willison. “We stayed in the 3-2 and held them down. That was our game plan to hold them down.

“But we have trouble scoring points.”

The first half wasn’t a masterpiece for either team by any stretch of the imagination. It involved a feeling-out process that took a while and resulted in a 4-4 score through eight minutes, as both squads came up short on several field goal attempts and turned the ball over on other occasions.

Summers County’s Lilly turned a steal just inside the mid-court line into two free throws at the other end to break the ice at the 4:52 mark. The Bobcats went up 4-0 when Harvey scored in the post off a Lilly assist, then the Falcons tallied the final four points of the initial quarter with buckets from Alt and Arin Lease, the latter on a left elbow jumper.

Summers built up an 11-6 spread when Lilly dashed into the lane and converted a deuce. Frankfort responded to knot it at 11-all on the strength of two points inside by Alt off an assist from Avery Noel and a 3-pointer from Grove from the right wing.

“I’ve seen a lot of games up here through the years,” Meador said of the lurching start from both teams. “You get that kind of game a lot the first night.

“We gotta settle in. We gotta play a little bit better the next game, ‘cause regardless of who we play, we’ve got to put the ball in the bucket. We can’t rely on defense the entire game. You gotta score points. I mean, defense is still our thing, but you still have to score points. It’s tough up here sometimes, that open background.”

Prior to the game, Frankfort’s Lara Bittinger and Summers County’s Liv Meador were recognized by the Army National Guard for enlisting for military service.

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Frankfort

Lynsey Zimmerman 0-2 2-2 2, Larae Grove 3-15, 3-8 10, Arin Lease 1-9 2-2 4, Avery Noel 0-5 1-2 1, Jillian Alt 5-9 0-2 10, Carlee Kesner 1-2 0-0 2, Lara Bittinger 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 10-43 8-16 29.

Summers County

Sullivan Pivont 3-9 0-1 8, Avery Lilly 1-7 7-10 9, Liv Meador 3-5 4-5 10, Abby Persinger 3-8 0-2 6, Grace Harvey 5-8 3-6 13, Cheyenne Smith 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 15-37 14-24 46.

F: 4 7 5 13 — 29

SC: 4 11 10 21 — 46

Three-point goals — F: 1 (Grove); SC 2 (Pivont 2). Fouled out: Zimmerman (F), Grove (F).

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