MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Plenty of rust needed to be knocked off for both No. 5 Morgantown and Washington in their 4A regular-season debuts, but Morgantown was able to make the most of a sloppy Patriots press and a full-team effort lifted the Mohigans to a 96-67 victory.
“Our team chemistry is awesome,” MHS coach Dave Tallman said. “This is a really fun group to be around and a fun group to coach. We’re clicking and I think it will be a fun year. We just have to keep working and get better every day. We had a short window to get ready so it’s going to take us a little bit to get better on defense.”
No doubt, both teams’ energies out of the gate led to some miscues. Within the first minute, both Xavier Pryor and Tre Jackson were fouled on drives, but after that things evened out for Morgantown and the Mohigans were able to run their offense with more precision. The defense was just as hot, forcing bad outside shots by WHS and breaking up passes for two quick break opportunities before the halfway mark in the first.
After jumping out to an 8-2 lead in the first three minutes, Morgantown seniors Luke Bechtel and Pryor were able to break up three straight Patriots possessions with a stymieing full-court press to push the lead to 14-6. The Patriots responded with a hard press of their own, but with worse consequences as two pivotal WHS players, Jalyn Wright and Jaylen Pooler, picked up bad fouls each before the 2-minute mark. The Patriots were able to battle back in the final minute, though, hitting two big buckets to cut the eight-point deficit down to four. But following a big 3 by the Patriots, Brooks Gage responded with a triple of his own to keep the lead at six, going into the second stanza leading, 25-19.
The second quarter started as bad as it could for WHS as Morgantown went on an early 6-0 run and with Pooler picking up foul No. 3. The chippy play didn’t slow down as both teams jumped up to 10 fouls well before the half ended. The Mohigans capitalized on Washington’s miscues, holding a 13-point lead at one point – their biggest of the half – and turned to Poffenberger in the low post who picked up five quick points to maintain the Mohigans’ lead down the stretch, but the Patriots were able to stay within 10 on late foul shots heading into the break.
Terrence Jones was able to get the Patriots clicking fresh from halftime as the team went on a quick 4-0 run, but two big 3s by Gage shut the Patriots down as soon as they got started. Morgantown began to slow down, too, running a smooth offense and jumping ahead to a 15-point lead to close the third quarter.
The Mohigans (1-0) closed out the game as they know best, ramping up the defense and knocking down deep shots to solidify their lead. Tensions were high for the Patriots, too, which led to bad fouls and, thus, the large end game deficit.
Though a team effort to overcome the Patriots (0-1), one of the bigger points coming into the new season was the loss of guards Mac McMillen and Alex Rudy and who would step into those roles. The answer is Bechtel, Gage, Sha-Ron Young and Jalen Goins. Bechtel led the team with 19 points, while Gage added another 18.
“I think we’re well balanced and got a lot of guys that can put it in the basket,” Tallman said. “All these guys have worked really hard and I’m proud of them.”
It could have been that the game was chippy, and Morgantown responded equally to the Patriots’ sloppy defense, but moving forward Tallman wants to solidify the defense.
“We’re scoring the ball well in our two scrimmages and tonight, so I think we need to concentrate on our defense,” Tallman said. “If we do that we can do some special things. I thought their point guard pressured the ball real well, they’ve got size. We have a lot of scorers, so it’s hard to key on one guy for us.”
Despite the blowout win, the Patriots fought hard and, according to Tallman, were better than he expected.
“Washington was a really good team, to be fair they were a lot better than I expected,” Tallman added. “They had a couple of transfers it looked like. They were a really good team, big. It was a great first game for us, a good test.”
Morgantown returns to action Saturday, kicking off a three-game road stretch with another Eastern Panhandle team, traveling to Martinsburg to face the top-ranked Bulldogs at 3 p.m.
WASHINGTON
Terrance Jones 9 5-5 23; Jalyn Wright 4 7-7 16; Bryson Fleming 3 3-5 10; Mark Statz 3 2-4 8; Jalen Pooler 1 2-2 5; Tre Jackson 1 2-4 4; Brayden Stottlemeyer 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 22-27 67.
MORGANTOWN
Luke Bechtel 8 2-2 19; Brooks Gage 5 4-4 18; Carson Poffenberger 6 2-3 14; Cam Rice 5 1-2 11; Xacier Pryor 4 1-2 9; Alec Poland 2 3-4 8; Jalen Goins 2 3-4 8; Sha Ron Young 2 2-2 7; Brody Davis 1 0-0 2; Totals 34 18-23 91.
WHS 19 17 19 12 – 67
MHS 25 21 24 26 – 96
3 pointers: WHS 3 ( Pooler, Wright, Fleming); MHS 7 (Gage 4, Poland, Goins, Bechtel, Young)
Technical fouls: WHS 1 (Team)
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