MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It isn’t a frequent occurrence a freshman leads a high school team to victory in the postseason, but Wednesday night University had two, Ella Simpson and Ashlyn Weaver, do just that as the Hawks came from behind to defeat Bridgeport, 47-39.
“I felt like we started executing the things we need to do at the end of games,” UHS coach David Price said. “We need to burn clock, shoot foul shots and make them play us. Early in that, we were shooting ill-advised shots and giving them extra opportunities. I think once we settled in and knew what we were going to do with the basketball, they executed that pretty well.”
Down early in the first quarter, Price sent in Weaver to spark the struggling Hawks (10-7). She did just that, but also found herself in serious foul trouble at the first-quarter buzzer, picking up three fouls in four minutes.
“I just thought we really needed to pick it up and weren’t playing very well, but I thought we played well after we got our momentum going,” Weaver said.
The Hawks trailed 14-9 then and Price pulled Weaver to cool down, but she was quickly re-inserted to the fold after junior guard Lauren Dean went out after taking an arm to the face on a physical play. Her play cleaned up in the second half, playing strong defense and putting up six points in addition to Simpson’s eight to help UHS retake the lead at the half, 27-23.
A poor third quarter for both teams saw neither group score for 3 1/2 minutes, snapped by two free throws by Simpson. She managed four more points and helped hold Bridgeport (6-5) to just two to push the Hawks’ lead to 33-25 at the end of the quarter.
University maintained its eight-point lead through most of the final quarter, but once they began holding and passing in the backcourt, the Indians stepped up defense and broke away for multiple buckets, cutting the deficit to three at one point. After sinking a 3-pointer, Weaver picked up her fourth foul on the Indian’s next possession, taking her out of the game once again. But with less than 1:30 left in the game, Price called timeout and put her back in.
“I needed to stop reaching, make smart decisions, and play good defense,” Weaver said.
“I kid around with her [Weaver] but she is a huge spark,” Price said. “Honestly, we have a good guard rotation using her and she comes off and gives us fresh legs, she helps the other guards get their legs back. If we get in foul trouble, that’s a big deal having her. She’s going in there playing older than a freshman minutes. They’re not freshmen anymore.”
It turned out to be the right call. With 55 seconds remaining, UHS began to feed inbound passes to Simpson who sank four critical shots at the foul line to push the Hawks’ back up to a seven-point lead. Strong defense by Weaver and one more freebie down the stretch for Simpson helped them stay ahead and advance, ending the Indians’ season.
“I try not to get nervous when I go to the foul line,” Simpson said. “Even though it was the end of the game, it’s just another shot. I tried to calm myself down and say, ‘It’s just another shot, you can make it; you do it all the time.’”
Simpson’s 23 points were a game-high, as she netted 12 from the field and 11 of 13 (84.6%) from the line. Weaver tacked on 11 to round out the double-digit scorers.
“We came out slow, so to move the ball on offense and get open shots, open looks, even if they weren’t falling, to get everyone excited is what’s important and I think we did that and stepped up,” Simpson said.
“We are a very young group, but we fight extremely hard,” Price said. “They just kept fighting. A lot of our shots aren’t going down – layups, things we think we should make all day – but they still stayed in there and played great defense. Thirty-nine [points], that’s doing a pretty good job.
“Ella has been a pretty special player for a long time and has done extremely well at the lower level. She’s been coming to camps and stuff, and you have to take your hats off to her. She’s come up and played good minutes for the varsity this year.”
Moving forward, University will face Buckhannon-Upshur in the Region I, Section 2 finals on Friday. Preston was forced to forfeit after COVID-19 hit the program, giving B-U a straight road to the championship game. Both UHS and B-U will advance to the Region I co-finals, with the winner of the Hawks-Buccaneers final playing the loser of the Morgantown-Wheeling Park game, and vice versa.
Price isn’t getting ahead of himself, though. He knows no matter who they play, everyone will be fresh and ready to fight for a win.
“We’ve got to expect everybody’s best game right now,” he said. “Nobody wants to go home. You better come prepared for everybody’s best game; I think Bridgeport gave us theirs so I wouldn’t expect any less from Buckhannon.”
Simpson and Weaver also aren’t getting ahead of themselves, even if they both led the Hawks in a previous win over the Buccaneers.
“I think we need to come out hard again and not slow,” Weaver said. “Work as a team and hopefully we have Lauren Dean back.”
“I’m excited for regionals, hopefully making it to states,” Simpson said. “Our first year, that would be great. We’re just going to play our hardest.”
Dean’s injury was not disclosed, although she did take the blow to her head. She played sparingly the rest of the game, subbing in two more times for a few minutes.
BOX SCORE
BRIDGEPORT (6-5) 14 9 2 14 – 39
UNIVERSITY (10-7) 9 18 6 14 – 47
BHS: Gabby Reep 5 4-5 15; Paige Humble 6 0-3 12; Emily Anderson 2 0-0 5; Maddy Amick 1 0-0 3;Ally Bender 1 0-0 2; Reagan Moore 1 0-0 2; Totals: 16 4-8 39.
UHS: Ella Simpson 6 11-13 23; 11 0-0 11; Ashlyn Weaver 5 0-0 11; Emily Sharkey 2 2-4 4; Lauren Dean 2 0-0 4; Eden Gibson 1 0-0 2; Lily Jordan 1 1-2 3; Totals: 15 14-19 47.
3-pointers: BHS 3 (Anderson, Reep, Amick); UHS 1 (Weaver).
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