6:00pm: Sportsline with Tony Caridi

Wyoming East moves forward without Lupardus after torn ACL

NEW RICHMOND, W.Va. — The Wyoming East girls basketball team battled through some adversity and injuries in 2015-2016 as the Warriors won their first state championship.

And they’ll have to do the same again in 2016-2017.

After all-state standout point guard Gabby Lupardus went down with a knee injury in the season’s opening weekend, an MRI showed last week that it was, in-fact, an ACL tear.

“Gabby is such a great individual on and off of the court and she provides so much to our team,” said Wyoming East coach Angie Boninsegna. “She’ll continue to provide leadership in practice and on the bench in games, providing vital support for our girls. She is still going to be an important member to our team for this season.”

It’s still, obviously, incredibly disappointing news for the junior who emerged as one of the state’s best players as just a freshman two years ago. Lupardus a year ago averaged 14 points, seven assists, five rebounds and five steals per game. She scored the most points in last year’s Class AA state tournament, finishing with 53 points in three games.

“Gabby is such a special young lady and coaches are very blessed if they get to have one type of player like her during their coaching career,” Boninsegna said. “She’s such an epitome of a point guard. We’ve been very successful over the last couple of years – she scores points when we need to, hits the open man and is really the floor-general on and off of the court.”

The Warriors will remain one of the favorites in Class AA despite the loss of Lupardus as they returned all of their top 10 players from that title team a year ago.

It also, undoubtedly, will be a bit of an adjustment process for Wyoming East moving forward without Lupardus on the floor.

“These kids are so unselfish and they’re great kids off of the court,” Boninsegna said. “I just have belief in them and faith in them that we can accomplish our goal if we continue to work hard. Gabby is going to be there for us – she’s going to be on the bench and there at practices. Just to play hard is all that I can ask of (the rest of the players).”

1 Wyoming East's Misa Quesenberry drives past No. 8 Tolsia's Dena Jarrells during the WVSSAC Class AA quarterfinals on Wednesday at the charleston Civic Center in Charleston, W.Va.
Wyoming East’s Misa Quesenberry (12) will take over point guard roles for the Warriors with Lupardus out.

Misa Quesenberry has taken over the point guard role with Lupardus out, while junior Kara Sandy and 6-foot-5 sophomore center Emily Saunders will hold even more prominent roles for the Warriors. Saunders averaged 10 points per game last year at the state tournament and has been off to an even better start to 2016-2017.

“We have nine good players that we can turn to,” Boninsegna said. “Emily (Saunders) had a great first weekend for us and controlled the middle – she got going offensively for us as well.”

The early-season schedule has been unforgiving for the Warriors as Wyoming East began the year against Class AAA powers Morgantown and Huntington, followed by out-of-state matchups against Kentucky schools Boyd County and East Carter.

The Warriors collected a 22-point win over Morgantown, with close losses to East Carter and Huntington, along with a 13-point loss to Boyd County.

Another significant challenge looms on Friday against another Class AAA power, South Charleston.

“We found some things that we needed to work on,” Boninsegna said of the early schedule. “We didn’t play as well against Huntington as I would have liked. But it helped with our confidence in a way, knowing that we can compete with high-level competition and be successful against it.”





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