MORGANTOWN — For the better part of two consecutive seasons, the Morgantown boys’ basketball team has scoured its locker room for an elite scorer. On Tuesday night, Alex Rudy proved he could handle the load.
In just 20 minutes, the junior guard caught fire from deep by draining eight 3s and scoring 30 points as the Mohigans downed John Marshall 86-40 to capture the Class AAA Region I championship.
“If he keeps playing like that, we’re going to be tough to beat. He’s more of a natural two-guard, but he’s been playing the point for us all year,” Morgantown coach Dave Tallman said. “We slid him back to the two, and his offensive production has been sky high here recently.”
Off to a fast start by converting three 3s in the first quarter, Rudy said his play was a by-product of the energy his teammates brought to the floor. The Mohigans (16-9) jumped out to a 25-4 lead.
“After I made my second basket, I was feeling it. Really, I felt confident because the team felt confident,” Rudy said. “We were passing the ball around, pushing it up the floor and getting rebounds — that’s what got me the open shots.”
As he continued to knock down shots — at one point nailing four-consecutive baskets from downtown to start the second half — his confidence blossomed.
“After I make my first basket, I just know I’m able to make that second. Then, I hit the third, then the fourth, and so on,” he said.
The win marks Tallman’s 100th win at the helm of the Mohigans in five seasons. His teams have qualified for the state tournament four times, and in 2016 they brought home a state championship.
“Anytime that you can average 20 or more wins a season in high school basketball, it means you have great players that have worked extremely hard and bought into your program, and my staff is second to none. We’ve been really blessed,” Tallman said. “I set a really high standard and we’ve had certain guys live up to it. We have a lot of good players walking the halls of Morgantown that aren’t on the team, that couldn’t get to that level we ask these guys to be at.”
John Marshall ended the season 8-16.
Morgantown enters the state tournament as the No. 5 seed and will open quarterfinal action against fourth-seeded Capital.
