Girls State Tournament: Slow start hampers Princeton in loss to Nitro

Tigers fall behind 12-0 to pen the game

Wednesday morning at the 2026 Girls Basketball State Tournament, the main difference between AAA No. 3-seed No. 3 Nitro and No. 6-seed Princeton was experience.

The Wildcats have recorded plenty of frequent flyer miles on the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center floor in recent years, while the state tournament minutes for the young Tigers was mostly non-existent.

Experience ultimately was the deciding factor in a 48-40 win for Nitro.

The Wildcats now advance to the AAA semifinal round to play East Fairmont, Friday, March 11 at 7:15 p.m.

The No. 7-seed Bees upset No. 2-seed Spring Valley, 54-52 Wednesday.

Princeton head coach Matt Smith talked to the media after game.

While the bright lights and large venue was hindering Princeton's attack, Nitro ran out to a 12-0 lead, midway through the first period.

Abbigail Honaker finally snapped the drought for the Tigers, but the double-digit margin was a deficit Princeton chased most of the game.

When the halftime horn sounded, the Tigers trailed by 15 points.

However, the second half was a different story for the ladies from Mercer County.

Finally settling into the Civic Center environment and turning up the pressure defense, Princeton clawed its way back to make it a game.

A triple from Kylee Jackson at the 4:05 mark of the third period moved the deficit inside double digits for the first time, but the Tigers continued to claw their way back even further.

Bristol Winfrey's jumper with just over one minute remaining the third quarter sliced the lead back to 29-25.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, that was a close as they would get the rest of the game.

Nitro gathered itself to take a 34-27 lead after three quarters and went up as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter to keep Princeton at arms reach.

Bri Gibson (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Karson Jones (14 points, 12 rebounds) lead the Wildcats with a double-doubles, while Bayleigh Elkins added 11 points ans Mika Adams scored 10.

Honaker paced the Tigers with 10 points and six rebounds.

Complete statistics shown below.

Nitro head coach Pat Jones discussed the win over Princeton.