MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Morgantown coach Dave Tallman and his team knew Buckhannon-Upshur was going to bring a hot hand to Wednesday’s Class 4A Region I co-final at Morgantown High, but it’s unknown whether it knew it’d only be up by one point at the half after blowing out Wheeling Park in the sectional finals.
Regardless, the Mohigans (17-1) held strong and snapped back in the opening minutes of the third to pull away from the Buccaneers to punch their ticket to states, 83-58.
“We knew Buckhannon was a very good team,” Tallman said. “They’ve got great players; Travis Foster has done a heck of a job with that program. I give them a lot of credit. I feel for them because I feel like they’re good enough to be in Charleston – our regional was just really hard this year.
“But I give our guys a lot of credit for withstanding their storm and we had our own in the second half.”
It was a battle from the first whistle as the Mohigans and Buccaneers traded the lead early on. B-U was able to put together a 5-0 run, though, forcing turnovers and jumping out to a 10-6 lead. Following a quick timeout by Tallman, B-U star guard Ryan Hurst netted a long 3 to push the lead to seven. Carson Poffenberger finally snapped the Mohigans’ drought with a bucket and one, and they began to chip away at the Bucs’ lead to finish the first frame on top, 18-17.
Both teams kept trading buckets, and Morgantown maintained its short lead going into the half, 32-31.
“Defensively, we gave up way too many in the first half,” Tallman said. “We were flat-footed, probably a little nervous; this is the tough game, this is the one you’ve gotta win to make it to Charleston, so we were a little tight. Didn’t guard too well and then we didn’t make many shots.”
The second half saw MHS power ahead with ease, taking a 9-point lead halfway through the third quarter before Luke Bechtel – returning from time off – hit two 3s to first regain the 7-point lead after a B-U 3-point play and then to push the lead to 12. Despite Foster’s timeout to try and stymie the Mohigans’ momentum, they continued to roll, taking a 19-point lead at the end of the third.
The fourth quarter played out much like the third, as Morgantown kept the pressure – pickpocketing B-U left and right or breaking up passes – to post the win.
Poffenberger, who was second in scoring with 16 points, was clear the path to victory was as simple as maintaining their composure.
“I think it was us sticking together,” he said. “At no point did any of us start pointing fingers and blame each other for what was going on, because, let’s be honest, we haven’t faced a lot of adversity this year with only having a few games – way less than we usually do – so I think it was a really good team win, facing the adversity we did, and sticking it out the whole time.
“Coach Tallman was very good in this one about, ‘We’re a team.’ He’s been here plenty of times, been in many close games at tournament time so he knew to keep his composure. You could tell that in our team – our team kept our composure because our coach did.”
On the composure, Tallman noted, because the players are nervous the coach needs to stay positive throughout any adversity. He was also fast to credit his coaching staff.
“The coach has to be positive before the game, at halftime, you know when a little adversity hits you can’t go crazy and have guys start freaking out,” he said. “I’m going to tell you this, I have the best staff in the country. My assistants made great adjustments at halftime. I’m lucky to have them. I’m not the coach I am without them.”
Brooks Gage led the Mohigans with 21 points, and Alec Poland added 14 in addition to Poffenberger’s 16.
Hurst paced the Buccaneers with 22 points, while Lamar Hurst added 16.
Big play, big depth
The size difference, going in MHS’s favor, certainly played a role in the win but the Buccaneers were able to contain the tallest player on the team, Poffenberger, well in the first half. The second half was much different, and Poffenberger credits that to the Buc’s shallow bench.
“Just got to keep working,” Poffenberger said of wearing down the Bucs. “You’re not always going to be open the first time; teams start getting tired, teams start losing you on the post. I just kept saying in my head, ‘Keep working, keep working, keep working.’ It opened up for me.
“One of the biggest things we did tonight was make their bigs work the whole time. They don’t have a super deep bench, so I think fatigue played a little bit of a role, a little bit of a factor toward the end. You could tell they started getting stagnant on offense, stagnant on defense, and I think you could tell it took a toll on them down the stretch.”
Senior Cam Rice was also critical in the win. After taking a year off for his junior year, Rice has vastly improved since the Mohigans’ season-opener against Washington. Having Bechtel back, a 6-foot-3 stretch 4 by high school standards, was also critical for the Mohigans’ run.
“We’ve got great guards, we’ve got great bigs. I think Cam Rice and Carson Poffenberger did a great job tonight for us inside,” Tallman said. “Luke Bechtel hasn’t played for a while and he came back and had a big monster game for us on his birthday.”
Top dogs
Morgantown finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the boys’ state Associated Press poll, and will enter the state bracket in the same spot. They will play No. 8 Woodrow Wilson at 5:30 p.m. May 6. Should the Mohigans win, they’ll play the winner of the 4-5 bout between No. 4 Huntington and No. 5 University at 5:30 p.m. May 7. The championship game is set for 8 p.m. May 8.
Box score
BUCKHANNON-UPSHUR (12-6) 17 14 12 15 – 58
MORGANTOWN (17-1) 18 14 30 21 – 83
BU: Ryan Hurst 8 3-3 22; Lamar Hurst 5 2-2 16; Zach White 4 0-0 8; Noam Keith 2 2-2 7; Harrison Weaver 2 1-1 5. Totals: 21 8-8 58.
MHS: Brooks Gage 7 3-4 21; Carson Poffenberger 7 2-3 16; Alec Poland 4 3-4 14; Sha-Ron Young 4 1-1 9; Luke Bechtel 3 0-0 8; Cam Rice 4 0-1 8; Brody Davis 1 0-0 3; Dom Gabriele 0 2-2 2; Xavier Pryor 1 0-0 2.
3-pointers: B-U 8 (Ryan Hurst 3, Lamar Hurst 4, Keith); MHS 10 (Gage 4, Poland 3, Bechtel 2, Davis).
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