MORGANTOWN – Everyone in the state of West Virginia knows the Morgantown boys’ basketball team can shoot.
It’s a given on any night that the Class AAAA No. 1 ranked Mohigans (20-4) are going to find a way to put the ball in the basket. The only possible question is if Morgantown’s defense will show up.
On Wednesday, all facets of MHS’s game turned out for a 57-37 regional championship win over archrival University.
“We watched film, the kids were really disappointed in how they played defense down the stretch,” MHS head coach Dave Tallman said. “Our defense was really good tonight, especially in the first half. We know we got scorers; I don’t really worry about offense.”
Wednesday is an excellent example of why Tallman doesn’t worry about offense. Morgantown shot 62.9% from the field and then turned around and held the Hawks (16-9) to just 37.8% from the field.
“In the first half, we just couldn’t get anything to go down,” UHS head coach Joe Schmidle said. “When you don’t see the ball go through the basket, the pressure starts to mount and then you start to wonder if you are ever going to score.”
For University, it was a loss that checked a lot of boxes as a lot of things went right. The Hawks held MHS to just six 3-pointers and limited their own turnovers to under 12.
But the Hawks just couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the basket against a MHS defense that was relentless at denying the ball to their post players.
“I thought we would have a chance to win the game if we held them to under eight threes,” Schmidle said. “I thought it would have been a closer game. We dug ourselves too big of a hole.”
Morgantown grabbed an 11-0 lead in the first quarter and held the Hawks scoreless until the 1:34 mark when Aaron Forbes hit a pair of free throws. UHS still didn’t hit a field goal until there were 49 second left in the quarter when Forbes scored on a lay-up.
“We got all the respect in the world for Aaron Forbes,” Tallman said. “He’s the guy on their team that can take a game over. So, every time he caught it — we doubled him. We did a really good job, we really tried to get the ball out of his hands.”
Once the Mohigans established their defense, they were able to start grinding on the Hawks offensively and senior Alec Poland went to work as he scored 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter.
“Playing against them, there’s always some emotion in it,” Poland said. “Once we got a few buckets, our offense started to get going.”
Morgantown pushed its lead to 33-11 at halftime with a 10-0 run to end the second quarter.
From there, Morgantown was able to play a patient offense and stayed in front of the Hawks on defense as it wrapped up a second-straight trip to Charleston for the state tournament.
“These guys out work everybody,” Tallman said. “They come early; they stay late. I don’t want a ring for me, I want them to win a ring. I don’t care if a get one.”
Morgantown has some unfinished business to do before getting those rings ordered. They don’t play again until next week when they open the state tournament at 5:30 p.m. March 17 against No. 8-seeded Musselman.
“I want the families to experience this, and we are just happy to get down there,” Tallman said. “Now we need to get back to work and get ready for whoever our next opponent is. We are on a mission.”
Sha-Ron young led the Mohigans with 15 while Poland added his 14 and Jalen Goins scored nine. Forbes and Jaeden Hammack each scored 10 for the Hawks.
By ERIC HERTER
University (16-9)
Jackson 2 2-2 7, Hammack 5 0-0 10, Kisner 3 0-0 6, Forbes 4 2-2 10, Fortney-Garbart 1 0-0 2, Cavalier 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 4-4 37.
Morgantown (20-4)
Poland 6 2-2 14, Gage 2 0-0 4, Goins 3 3-5 9, Young 7 0-0 15, Davis 2 0-0 6, Marra 0 2-2 2, Neal 1 0-0 2. Totals 23 7-9 57.
1 2 3 4 F
UHS 4 7 14 12 37
MHS 16 17 8 6 57
3-pointers – UHS: Jackson. MHS: Poland 3, Davis 2, Young.
