The Eastern Lady Warriors are Southeast District Division III Sectional Tournament champions after topping Rock Hill for the sectional title at Valley High School on Feb. 18. Front row, from the left, are Camryn Pickerill, Morgan Reynolds, Whitney Broughton, Megan Cox, Jensen Sowers, Allison Malott, and Andrea Edmisten; back row, assistant coaches Dan Beasley and Deb Forsythe, Maggie Fultz, Mikayla Farris, Alexa Pennington, Allison Day, Destinie Rose, Haley Fannin, head coach Kevin Pickerill, and assistant coach Janie Day.

By Wade Linville –

The Eastern Lady Warriors are headed to Southeast District Division III Tournament play at Waverly High School after dominating the hardwood to win the Feb. 18 sectional championship bout over Rock Hill by a score of 63-23.
The No. 1 seed Lady Warriors are scheduled to face No. 4 seed Nelsonville-York in the district semifinals at Waverly on Feb. 23. The winner of that match-up will advance to the district finals to face the winner of the district semifinal game between No. 2 seed Southeastern and No. 3 seed Ironton.
Lady Warrior head coach Kevin Pickerill felt his crew got off to a bit of a slow start, but would heat up to hold a 15-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“I felt like we came out a little tight to start, and they did a good job of beating our press so we weren’t able to get any easy ones to start,” said Pickerill. “We made an adjustment about five minutes into the game with the type of pressure we were using, and that allowed us to get going offensively. We definitely have some adjustments to make before we play Nelsonville on Thursday, but we believe they’re just minor ones that we can fix pretty easily. As far as Nelsonville, we have to be able to defend their perimeter and contain their point guard. If we are able to do that, I like our chances.”
Leading the way for the Lady Warriors in the sectional championship win over No. 8 seed Rock Hill was junior Allison Day with 21 points. Day provided the Lady Warriors with steady scoring throughout, as expected from the 6’1” court star who has been named the District 14 Coaches Association Player of the Year and nominated as the Southern Hills Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
Also reaching double figures in scoring for the Lady Warriors was sophomore Alexa Pennington with 14 points. Eastern junior Whitney Broughton contributed with seven points, and sophomore Morgan Reynolds ended the game with six points.
Eastern junior Mikayla Farris shot for four points in the sectional win, and there were five Lady Warriors to finish with two points – junior Maggie Fultz, freshman Camryn Pickerill, senior Jensen Sowers, junior Haley Fannin, and sophomore Allison Malott.
The Lady Warriors’ sturdy defense prevented any Rock Hill player from reaching double figures in scoring.
The Lady Warriors held Rock Hill to just one point in the second quarter to hold a 40-6 lead at halftime.
Leading Rock Hill was Jill Hairiston with eight points.

RHHS   5    1   5  12 – 23
EHS    15  25  13  10 – 63

Rock Hill (23): Darby 2 0-2 4, Stamper 1 0-0 2, Meadows 1 0-1 2, Scott 1 2-4 4, Hairiston 3 0-0 8. Three-pointers: Hairiston 2. Team: 9 3-8 23.

Eastern (63): Day 10 1-2 21, Pennington 5 0-0 14, Broughton 3 0-0 7, Reynolds 3 0-0 6, Farris 2 0-0 4, Fultz 1 0-0 2, Pickerill 1 0-0 2, Sowers 0 2-4 2, Fannin 1 0-0 2, Malott 1 0-0 2. Three-pointers: Pennington 4, Broughton 1. Team: 27 4-8 63.