The Eastern Lady Warriors topped the West Union Lady Dragons Feb. 9 to finish with a perfect Southern Hills Athletic Conference record of 13-0, earning the SHAC Gold Ball Award.

By Wade Linville –

The Eastern Lady Warriors will soon be bringing home the highly sought-after Southern Hills Athletic Conference Gold Ball after finishing their regular season with a perfect conference record of 13-0.
While on the road at West Union High School Feb. 9, the Lady Warriors dominated the hardwood against the home-standing Lady Dragons for a 96-30 victory, finishing their regular season with a perfect 13-0 record in SHAC play.
“(I’m) very happy with the way we finished out. (The) kids’ confidence has sky rocketed over the last month. Winning the Gold Ball was quite an accomplishment. It wasn’t one of our goals, but we definitely wanted to win the league, so doing it in this fashion was a bonus,’ said Pickerill.
The Lady Warriors were led in scoring by junior standout Allison Day, who racked up 18 points in the first half of play to finish with a total of 24 points.
Eastern junior Whitney Broughton also reached double figures in scoring with 16 points, while junior teammate Mikayla Farris contributed 14 points in the Lady Warriors’ winning effort.
Eastern freshman Camryn Pickerill fired for 12 points in last Thursday’s win, while  sophomores Morgan Reynolds and Alexa Pennington ended the night with 10 points apiece.
The Lady Warriors wrapped up their regular season with an impressive 21-1 overall record.
Although they started off their 2016-17 campaign with some fine play on the hardwood, the Lady Warriors were able to make some significant improvements as their season rolled along.
“We have progressed throughout the season very well. It doesn’t seem, at any one point, that we have stopped improving in any certain area,” said Pickerill. “As a coach, you always want more, or even more out of a certain player, but overall we are continuing to get better.”
The Lady Warriors are now preparing for the Southeast District Division III Sectional Tournament play at Valley High School.
The Lady Warriors received the No. 1 seed and drew a bye for round one of the sectional. On Feb. 18, they will face the winner of the round one sectional bout between No. 8 seed Rock Hill (5-13) and No. 9 seed Northwest (2-15).
The Lady Warriors will take no team lightly while gunning for a lengthy post-season tourney run.
“(The) tournament draw was something we were wanting. A goal of ours was to be No. 1 seed, but at the end you still have to play the games and I feel that anybody can beat you on any given night,” said Pickerill.