MORGANTOWN – The Mohawk Bowl met the hardwood Friday night at Morgantown High, as the Mohigans hosted cross-town rival University. MHS head coach Dave Tallman witnessed his team put on a shooting clinic, shooting 50% (28 of 56) from the floor as a team in a 73-45 win.
UHS’s Elija Jackson opened the scoring in the first with five quick points as the Hawks held serve against the state’s No. 1 ranked team, keeping the score close through the first four minutes of the game. MHS standout and top-ranked PG in the West Virginia class of 2024, Sha-Ron Young picked up two early fouls and had to sit the rest of the quarter.
Young struggled against UHS and didn’t register a point until the third quarter. Despite the tough offensive outing, he stepped up on defense, including a chase-down block in which he pinned the ball on the backboard. Brooks Gage led the Mohigans on a quick 8-2 run to establish the lead at the end of the first quarter when MHS led by seven, 19-12.
“We withered the rivalry storm out of the gate,” Tallman said. “I thought we played well together and played hard.”
The second quarter began much like the first, back and forth between both teams with MHS holding serve and leading by nine, 26-17 early in the quarter. UHS struggled against the Mohigans defensive pressure as they found themselves letting the game slip away.
Enter Brody Davis.
The MHS forward came down the floor and splashed three-straight 3-pointers, including one from NBA range, to increase the lead for his team to 35-17 halfway through the second. He finished with 17 points, scoring all of them in the first half. MHS scored 26 points as a team in the quarter. Davis brought energy to not only his team and the bench, but the MHS fans as well, as the Mohigan faithful erupted as he hit his third in a row.
“Brody put on a show in the second quarter,” Tallman praised his leading scorer on the night. “We had a lot of foul trouble in the first half and the bench really stepped up.”
Davis credited those around him for his first half performance.
“I thought my teammates did a good job of finding me the ball after I hit my first few,” he said. “We all also stepped up on the boards in the second as well as our team defense.”
And Davis’ performance was to the detriment of the Hawks.
“Davis definitely got the momentum and made some big shots,” UHS head coach Joe Schmidle said.
Mohigans found themselves with a comfortable lead at halftime, 41-21.
UHS came out of the locker room with improved defense and held the Mohigans to only eight points in the 3rd quarter. However, the Hawks only managed 12 points themselves. While they cut three points off of the deficit by the end of the 3rd, they still faced a huge battle in the fourth if they wanted to make a comeback. But MHS proved to be too much for the Hawks in the end, forcing them to turn the ball over and outscoring them 20-9 in the fourth with good clock-management.
“Bottom line is, we didn’t come ready to play.” Schmidle said. “We got out-hustled, we got out-rebounded, we got out-toughed. Just out-executed.”
UHS has been dealing with COVID the past week. Schmidle was without four players Tuesday against Wheeling Park, and without three of those four against MHS. Aside from the score, Schmidle was happy with the performance by his younger players who were asked to step up in the absence of their teammates.
“I was proud of those young guys.” Schmidle said. “Raphael Barcinas and Luke Hudson were probably two of the guys for us who played the best, along with (Garrison) Kisner.”
Kisner led UHS with 19 points on 8 of 13 shooting from the field.
For the Mohigans, three players scored in double-figures (Gage, Davis, Alec Poland). Davis led MHS with 17.
Next up for MHS is a road trip to Wheeling to face Linsly (pending weather), before they return home on Jan. 22 for a home game against Martinsburg.
The Hawks next scheduled game is a home game against George Washington out of Charleston on Jan. 22.
University (4-5)
Garrison Kisner 13 3-3 19 Elija Jackson 9 0-0 10 Aaron Forbes 5 0-2 6 Grant Cavalier 3 3-3 5 Diego Reyes 3 0-0 3 Charles Nemecek 2 0-0 2 Luke Hudson 1 0-0 0.
Morgantown (6-3)
Brody Davis 12 0-0 17 Brooks Gage 12 0-0 16 Alec Poland 7 2-2 12 Jalen Goins 7 2-3 9 Sha-ron Young 10 0-0 7 Cam Dancer 4 0-0 6 Ethan Marra 3 0-0 4 Koma Neal 2 0-0 2.
UNIVERSITY 12 12 12 9 – 45
MORGANTOWN 19 26 8 20 – 73
3-pointers: MHS – 13 (Davis 5, Gage 4, Poland 2, Goins 1, Young 1); UHS – 3 (Jackson 2, Reyes 1)
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