MORGANTOWN — The University High gym was full and rocking Wednesday night as the Hawks hosted cross-town rivals Morgantown in boys’ hoops. While undefeated MHS was coming off a monstrous win over highly-touted Bishop Walsh (MD), 2-2 UHS had suffered a pair of close losses to Capital and George Washington at the Par Mar Holiday Classic in Charleston.
But when it’s these two teams — regardless of the sport — the records mean precisely zip, as evidenced by an early double-digit lead for the underdog Hawks, who clearly outplayed the Mohigans for at least 23 minutes of the game.
However, those nine minutes of Morgantown intensity and excellence — especially in a transformative 23-6 third quarter that included a 19-0 run — lifted MHS to a 67-54 victory.
University (2-3) burst out to an 9-2 lead in the first four minutes of the game on six quick paint points from junior Garrison Kisner and a three by senior Diego Reyes. Fellow senior Aaron Forbes also attacked the rim effectively, scoring eight tough points to expand the Hawks advantage to 22-12 with a minute left in the quarter before (in a harbinger of things to come) MHS senior Alec Poland drilled a 3 at the buzzer.
Poland then hit another from beyond the arc to begin the second stanza, and when the Mohigans (5-0) turned up their defense with a ¾-court trap, the Hawks began to turn the ball over, resulting in Morgantown’s first lead midway through the quarter, 29-26. Two triples from Brooks Gage (who hit six others on his way to a game-high 25 points) gave MHS a momentum-building 35-34 halftime lead.
That’s when Poland and dynamic sophomore guard Sha-Ron Young took over the game for the Mohigans. The burly, crafty senior hit a pair of 3s and completed a conventional 3-point play, while Young scored nine in the quarter as the MHS snowball continued to roll, turning a 39-all game into a 58-40 commanding lead heading into the fourth. The Hawks continued to pound the rock down low to Forbes (he finished with a bruising 17 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out late) and Kisner, but the clock ran out on an essentially impossible comeback attempt.
After the game, MHS coach Dave Tallman was as pleased with his team’s third quarter as he was displeased with the rest of the game.
“They kicked our butts on the glass in the first quarter,” he said. “We stood around on offense and didn’t play hard on defense in the second quarter, and we let up off the gas pedal in the fourth quarter. The standard is the standard around here, and although I thought we played the way we expect to play in the third quarter, it’s our job to play well throughout the game. We have to play hard to be successful, and that means we need some of our talented bench to step up and give us more solid minutes, so we don’t wear down. We’re still a work in progress.”
And that’s perhaps a scary prospect, considering UHS coach Joe Schmidle’s assessment of the Mohigans.
“I think they’re the best team in the state,” he said. “We played right with them for most of this game, made just three less field goals and two more free throws than them, and we were still down by 20 points in the fourth quarter. They made 13 3s, and they’ve been doing it to everyone. Too many good shooters to cover them all, and Sha-Ron does such a great job in delivering the ball at the right time, or attacking the rim himself. Real tough to defend, for sure. Foul trouble and a lack of patience on offense hurt us, and we just couldn’t stop the game from getting away from us in the third. But we did a nice job in stretches, and that certainly gives us something to build on, with plenty of games left for us to improve.”
Both Morgantown and University will be traveling (separately) to Winston-Salem, N.C., for three games against different opponents in the North Carolina Big Shots Winter Jam Fest on Dec. 27-29.
In the JV game, MHS got 16 points from Izzy Everett and 13 from Jay Shrewsberry as it defeated UHS 58-36. Luke Hudson scored 10 to pace the Hawks.
Morgantown 15 20 23 9 – 67
University 22 12 6 14 – 54
MORGANTOWN (5-0)
Brooks Gage 9 0-1 25 Sha-ron Young 7 3-4 19 Brody Davis 1 0-0 2 Jalen Goins 0 1-2 1 Alec Poland 6 4-5 20 Cameron Danser 0 0-2 0 Totals 23 8-14 67
UNIVERSITY (2-3)
Elija Jackson 1 0-0 3 Grant Cavalier 1 2-2 4 Diego Reyes 4 0-0 11 Aaron Forbes 5 7-10 15 Garrison Kisner 9 0-0 18 Jaeden Hammack 0 1-2 1 Totals 20 10-14 54
Three-pointers – MHS 13 (Gage 7, Poland 4, Young 2), UHS 4 (Reyes 3, Jackson).
Fouled out – UHS 1 (Forbes).
