MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — On Friday night, the highly-ranked University boys’ basketball team hosted its traditional rival Preston, and the hustling, battling Knights wanted nothing more than to hang around and keep the Hawks within reach.
For a while, they did just that. But eventually, UHS’s athleticism, length and depth proved too much, as the Hawks built a 30-point fourth quarter lead and cruised to a comfortable 73-48 victory.
After a Preston (2-7) quick bucket to start the game, University (6-1) sprinted out on a 16-1 run, mostly from fast-break conversions from Ryan Niceler and TT Brooks, to take control early on. However, the Knights tightened up on defense, rebounded well and clawed back to with seven at 18-11 after one.
Throughout the second quarter, the Hawks threatened to blow out to a bigger lead, but behind dynamic senior guard Jaden Fultz, PHS had chances late in the half to whittle the deficit down to a two-possession game. But a big dunk from Blake Barkley and an uber-deep 3-ball at the buzzer from Noah Braham gave the Hawks their largest lead of the game at the break, 35-21.
In the second half, UHS kept the pressure on and wore down the shorthanded Knights, stretching out to a 20-point advantage on Garrison Kisner’s slick baseline drive and stuff. When Barkley stole a pass, drove the length of the floor, and threw down an eye-popping tomahawk dunk later in the quarter, the lead was 24 and the outcome sealed.
Fultz scored 18 and Mason Sargent hit for 11 for the Knights, while University’s balanced scoring night included Niceler with 18, Kisner with 16 and Barkley with 14.
After the game, Knights coach Paul Koontz was proud of the fight in his team.
“These kids never quit,” he said, “and if we could’ve gotten a shot or two go down at the right time, we might’ve put a little more doubt in their minds. It’s midseason, and we know what we need to get better at. Unfortunately, I think we have more games than practices the rest of the season, so that makes it a challenge to improve as fast as we wish. I’d like us to be more patient and purposeful on offense, and we’ll find a way to prioritize that moving forward. Lots of games to play, and we’re glad to be playing, for sure.”
As far as Hawks and coach Joe Schmidle was concerned, the two straight days of practice his team completed was nothing short of wonderful – and helpful.
“We got out and ran well tonight, with contributions from up and down the roster,” he said, “but what I thought we really did well tonight was improve our defense. It was the main lesson we had to learn after the Morgantown game (Tuesday’s 76-65 road loss), and I liked how we played defensively tonight. We were more patient in our half-court sets at times, but I like to get out and run, and our guys like to as well. And our bigs can really move and leap and are very athletic. We’re at our best when we’re attacking the rim, and we did that well tonight.”
In the JV game, Chase Edwards scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Hawks past the Knights 63-41. Brier Rugg paced PHS with 10.
University is back in action today, hosting Spring Mills at home with 6:45 p.m. tip, while Preston enjoys a rare break before travelling to Philip Barbour next Tuesday.
PRESTON (2-7)
Fultz 7 2-2 18; Harris 1 2-2 4; Thomas 1 0-0 2; Snider 4 0-0 9; Burns 0 3-4 3; Sargent 3 2-4 11; Hawkins 0 1-2 1. Totals 16 10-14 48.
UNIVERSITY (6-1)
Kisner 7 2-3 16; Jackson 1 1-2 3; Brooks 3 2-2 8; Braham 1 0-0 3; Barkley 6 2-4 14; Niceler 5 8-8 18; Hammack 2 2-2 6; Forbes 1 3-4 5. Totals 26 20-25 73
Preston 11 10 13 14 – 48
University 18 17 21 17 – 73
3-pointers” PHS 6 (Sargent 3, Fultz 2, Snider); UHS 1 (Braham) .
