'She does so much': Peyton Nicholson leads Sandy Valley girls basketball past Fairless

‘She does so much’: Peyton Nicholson leads Sandy Valley girls basketball past Fairless

Posted by author February 14, 2025 Basketball

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MAGNOLIA — Peyton Nicholson’s long-term athletic future will be as a College of Wooster softball player.

In the short term, the Sandy Valley High School senior’s goal is to extend her basketball career and her team’s season as long as possible.

Nicholson scored a game-high 23 points to lift Sandy Valley past Fairless 57-43 in a Division V sectional final Thursday night. She also had five steals and three assists for the seventh-seeded Cardinals (11-12), who will face No. 2 seed Martins Ferry next Wednesday at a site to be determined.

“Our goal today was to have fun and just play our game,” Nicholson said. “I feel like we did a really good job. We really played together as a team and just had fun doing it.”

Nicholson was an All-Ohio player in basketball and softball as a junior. Colleges did not pursue her for basketball. She recently reaffirmed her commitment to play softball at Wooster.

Her talent on basketball courts don’t go unnoticed by others. Nicholson leads the Cardinals in scoring and assists. She had a near quadruple-double of 13 points, 11, rebounds, 10 assists and nine steals in a win over United last month.

“She does so much for us, just handling the ball, getting everybody in the right spots and scoring,” said Sandy Valley head coach Tojh Nicholson, Peyton’s father. “She just fills the stat sheet up.

“Even more than that, she’s just a great leader and a great teammate.”

Nicholson was one of only two seniors from either team who played Thursday. Fairless started five sophomores. One junior and three sophomores joined Nicholson in Sandy Valley’s starting lineup.

As their young players continue to gain experience, the Cardinals are thriving. They will head to the district round having won five of their last seven.

“I feel like we’ve been playing our best basketball the past couple of weeks,” Peyton Nicholson said.

Senior Tatum Davis and junior Teresa Petro are the only other upperclassmen in Sandy Valley’s program. Petro grabbed 10 rebounds against Fairless.

“There are times we look great and there are times we look not so great as a young team,” Tojh Nicholson said. “Those three upperclassmen have played a lot of basketball and really lead the whole team. They’re rocks for the whole team.”

The Cardinals built a 24-14 halftime lead and never looked back.

Nicholson’s third 3-pointer late in the third quarter gave Sandy Valley a 41-29 lead. The Falcons cut it to nine at the end of the quarter, but the Cardinals eventually pulled away.

“We just could not put them away,” Tojh Nicholson said. “Fairless did a great job just hanging around, hanging around. They would cut the lead, and we would kind of get it back up.

“We finally got on the glass. They hurt us on the offensive glass in the second half. We finally got some rebounds and got some stops. We were able to get in transition to push out the lead and put it away.”

Ella Wade scored 14 points to lead Fairless (7-16). Bailee Epenshied finished with 11.Reach Mike at mike.popovich@cantonrep.com

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