CHARLESTON, W.Va. — St. Albans head coach Elias Gregory believes Spring Valley’s Sophi Hutchison would stand out more often playing on a team not as talented or deep as the Timberwolves.
For Class AAAA’s top seed, Hutchison just so happens to be one of several notable players, though she sure stood out Friday in a state semifinal against the No. 5 Red Dragons.
Hutchison needed only 13 field-goal attempts to score 29 points. She made all but three of those shots, added nine of her team’s 19 assists and came away with eight steals to help the Timberwolves cruise to an 83-49 victory at the Charleston Coliseum.
“What’s so good about our team is we have five girls on the court at all times that can score,” Hutchison said.
Outside of 2-0, SVHS (21-2) never trailed. The Timberwolves shot 8 for 16 from the field and 7 for 9 on free throws in the opening quarter, which featured a 13-0 spurt that turned a two-point lead into a 21-6 margin.
Hutchison accounted for nine of her team’s 25 points in the opening frame, teammate Dria Parker added seven and the Timberwolves led 25-12 through 8 minutes while taking advantage of extra attention St. Albans geared toward limiting post player Allie Daniels.
“On any given night, it can be any given one of them to score,” Timberwolves’ head coach Bo Miller said. “When they collapsed on Allie, she was kicking it out and we got several open looks off that.”
The offensive onslaught continued throughout the second quarter, when the Timberwolves got an additional 10 points from Hutchison along with nine from Brooklyn Ellis.
“Defense carries over to offense, so when I’m getting steals and stopping the ball, I can transition to offense,” Hutchison said.
Spring Valley gained its first 20-point lead when Ellis made the second of two free throws to make it 35-15.
The Timberwolves’ next four field goals were all three-pointers that came in a stretch just south of 3 minutes. Hutchison hit two, while Savannah Davis made the first and Parker accounted for the last.
“Everybody knows what Spring Valley is — incredible,” Gregory said. “If Sophi Hutchison was on any other team, she could probably be the player of the year the last two years.”
St. Albans’ Jaycee Elzy beat the first-half buzzer with a trey to move the Red Dragons (17-7) to within 49-26 at halftime.
With the exception of Elzy accounting for the first bucket of the second half, SAHS never got closer than its halftime deficit over the final two quarters.
The Timberwolves kept up their efficient offensive ways and made 7-of-14 shots in the third, allowing Moller’s team to enter the fourth with a 66-39 advantage.
The Timberwolves turned it over only seven times.
“When Sophi has it in her hands, she makes everyone else better,” Miller said. “When the shares the ball, we’re hard to stop.”
Ellis and Parker both added 15 points in the win, while Daniels scored seven to go with a game-high 13 rebounds. Daniels was instrumental in keying SV to a 45-33 edge on the boards.
“We played very aggressively on defense and the defense slowed them down a lot,” Miller said. “We had a lot of rebounds. If we rebound and play defense, we’d win. If we rebound, we’re pretty good.”
Elzy led St. Albans with 19 points and seven boards.
“The game plan was to take Allie away and we did a very good job with that,” Gregory said, “but the problem is what you have to do to take Allie away, you still have Sophi, Brooklyn and others.”