MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — There weren’t many surprises looking at the stat sheet following University’s season-opening 93-63 win over Greater Beckley Christian on Friday, a win that closed the first day of the Big Shots Country Roads Tip-Off at UHS.
The Hawks had their original opener against Buckhannon-Upshur postponed from Tuesday to February, but there wasn’t a letdown from their star guard duo. Kaden Metheny dropped a game-high 31 points and K.J. McClurg added another 18 points, so it was business as usual for the defending state champions.
But Ryan Niceler’s 12 points — 10 of which came in the first half — may be a little bit of a surprise to anyone outside of the UHS (1-0) program.
Not to coach Joe Schmidle.
“Ryan is so much better than anybody knows,” Schmidle said. “He’s starting to get on a lot of college scouts’ radars. He gets overshadowed a lot because of K.J. and Kaden, but the son of a gun can play. He’s going to be key for us because he’s that third guy that any given night, he can score 20-25 for you. There’s not one part to his game that he doesn’t have — he can shoot the 3, he can take it to the hole, he’s athletic, he can shoot the midrange, he can finish really well, he’s got a nice little floater.”
It was a dominant performance for UHS from the start over the Crusaders (1-1), shooting lights out in the first half to build a 30-point halftime lead. Metheny made seven from beyond the arc, which led the team. In total, the Hawks shot 13 of 23 from 3, good for 57%.
Schmidle also credited Mike Maumbe’s work on the boards and McClurg’s overall game. However, there were a few defensive breakdowns, which Schmidle expected in the first game. Greater Beckley Christian guard Elijah Edwards scored 30 points, including seven 3-pointers.
“We shot the lights out — we shot the ball really well,” Schmidle said. “We’re not going to shoot the ball that well every night. This was pretty much what I expected for a first game. We still had some defensive breakdowns where our communication wasn’t real [great].”
UHS will continue play at the Country Roads Tip-Off at 7 p.m. Saturday against Poca.
BOX SCORE
Greater Beckley Christian (1-1)
Edwards 9 5-6 30; Smallwood 2 0-2 4; Trifkovic 0 0-0 0; Jordan 3 0-0 7; Hairston 3 1-4 9; Hoskins 3 0-0 8; Krunic 1 0-0 2; Rose 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 6-12 63.
University (1-0)
Metheny 12 0-0 31; McClurg 5 6-6 18; Niceler 6 0-1 12; Maumbe 0 2-2 2; Smith 1 0-1 2; Barkley 1 2-4 5; Mazza 3 0-0 9; Forbes 2 2-3 6; Hammack 1 0-0 2; Brooks 1 0-0 2; Reyes 2 0-0 4; Braham 1 0-0 2. Totals: 35 11-16 93.
GBC 19 6 17 21 – 63
UHS 30 25 18 20 – 93
3-pointers: GBC 12 (Edwards 7, Haskins 2, Jordan, Hairston 2); UHS 13 (Metheny 7, McClurg 2, Barkley, Mazza 3).
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