CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There’s no substitute for experience.
Nitro showed precisely why for the opening quarter and throughout much of the first half in Wednesday’s Class AAA quarterfinal against Princeton.
The No. 3 seed Wildcats raced scored the first 12 points, led by 11 after the opening quarter and 15 at halftime, before holding off a furious second-half charge from the Tigers for a 48-40 victory at the Charleston Coliseum.
“We stayed composed. It was more of the experience being here and all these girls coming back from last year,” Nitro coach Pat Jones said. “They came in a little more composed and relaxed. At the end of the game, we played very composed and knocked down some big free throws.”
The win moves Nitro (19-4) to within one win of a third straight appearance in a state title game after the Wildcats won it all in 2024 and finished runner-up a season ago. They’ll next face the winner of No. 2 Spring Valley/No. 7 East Fairmont in a semifinal.
Bri Gibson and Bayleigh Elkins each made a three-pointer within the game’s first 3 minutes to help the Wildcats lead 8-0, and the advantage increased to a dozen after Gibson and Brooklyn Cawley each scored in the paint.
“The first 4 minutes could make or break the game and we want to try to take over the game in the first 4 minutes,” Jones said. “At the first media timeout, we were up 10 and that let me know we were dialed in and focused.”
Abby Honaker’s bucket at the 3:19 mark of the opening quarter marked the first points for Princeton, which finished the first quarter with a 16-5 deficit after shooting 2 for 15 with six turnovers.
“The environment is real. You can’t go in the gym at Princeton and make this happen,” Tigers’ coach Matt Smith said. “For everybody, that’s a big thing. That was one of the biggest keys to the game early. Nitro lives at the Coliseum. They’re here every year. We did have that adjustment period, but once we kind of figured things out, they showed what they’re capable of, especially in the second half.”
The Tigers (17-7) got a triple from MaeAnn Stroupe to open the second-quarter scoring and prevented the Wildcats from making a field goal that period until Gibson’s triple 3:28 before halftime. Yet at that point, Nitro’s lead remained 11 at 20-9 thanks to its defensive prowess, and the Wildcats went to the break on top 26-11 after limiting PHS to to 4-for-27 shooting over the first two frames.
But Princeton looked much more the part of a 17-win team for lengthy stretches of the third quarter, and the Tigers’ deficit was 27-19 after Kylee Jackson made a three just before the midway point of the period.
When Brystal Winfrey scored at the 1:19 mark, the PHS deficit was 29-25, though Nitro guard Mika Adams answered with a trey and the Wildcats maintained that seven-point lead to enter the fourth in front, 34-27.
The Tigers trailed by six after Addie McCabe’s conventional three-point play with 6:39 remaining, but the Wildcats scored the next six points of the matchup at the free-throw line on eight attempts to move their lead back out to 12.
Princeton made one last charge and scored seven unanswered points during a stretch that began with Jackson’s conventional three-point play and also featured a triple from Burks.
But after Adams made the second of two free throws with 1:11 left, Elkins came up with a steal that she converted into a layup to move the lead to eight. Karson Jones added two free throws for a 10-point lead not long after.
The victory allows Nitro to avenge an early season loss to the Tigers.
“We played Greenbrier East the night before we played Princeton and had just been in a dogfight,” Jones said. “Our legs were exhausted from the night before.”
A balanced Nitro attack featured a team-high 14 points from Jones, who made 10-of-14 free throws. As a team, the Wildcats were 18 for 28 on foul shots, while the Tigers made only 5 of 13.
“A lot of the free throws came from maybe tired legs,” Smith said. “We put ourselves in a hole and asked a lot of them in the second half to get back into it. Your mind tells your body it can’t do it anymore. The environment and backdrop is different.”
Elkins and Gibson scored 11 apiece, while Adams contributed 10.
Jones (12) and Gibson (11) were their team’s leading rebounders.
Honaker led Princeton with 10 points, while Natalie Rose led all players with 15 rebounds in defeat.
The Tigers finished with 15 field goals and 20 turnovers, but had a 49-44 rebounding edge. Princeton made 11-of-29 field-goal attempts in the second half.
“Not rushing shots as much,” Smith said. “We missed pretty easy looks early. We did a better job settling in more in the second half. When you have a bunch of young girls, you can say this is a basketball game, but it’s more than just a basketball game. We settled down and Addie did a fantastic job in the second half of getting us into more offensive sets. We battled really hard on the boards.”