MORGANTOWN — The two local teams closed out the girls’ portion of the BFS Tip-Off Classic with win early Saturday as Morgantown defeated Albert Gallatin 50-35 and University followed suit with a 59-55 overtime triumph over Kennedy Catholic.
Both Morgantown (4-0) and University (3-0) remain undefeated in the young season and swept their Pennsylvania-based opponents during the two-day event inside the gym at University High School.
Kennedy Catholic may play in the smallest classification in Pennsylvania, but the Golden Eagles were PIAA state runners-up last year and gave the Hawks a battle for four-plus quarters.
“It’s just going to make us better in the long run,” UHS coach Nick Lusk said. “That’s why we want to schedule games like this. It doesn’t get any easier because then we’ve got Parkersburg South on Tuesday and Wheeling Park comes in on Thursday. This is just going to prepare us for that.”
Despite falling down 11-7 after one quarter, the Hawks outscored their opponents 19-5 in the second and led 26-16 at halftime.
Both teams came out hot in the third quarter as KC scored 18 in the frame and UHS had 17. Junior Ella Simpson scored 11 of her team-high 20 points for the Hawks in the third quarter. In the fourth, however, Kennedy Catholic started to heat up and University’s shots stopped falling. Compounding the issue was that the Hawks made only 1-of-5 free throw attempts in the final frame, including three misses on the first shot of one-and-ones.
That allowed Kennedy, powered by sophomore center Layke Fields, to put together a 10-point scoring run that cut University’s lead to 49-48 in the waning minutes. The imposing Fields was a major problem for the Hawks down low. She scored a game-high 25 points on 11 made field goals.
“She’s a very good player,” Lusk said. “We tried doubling her, we tried fronting her and she got hers and she did a good job.”
KC’s Monique Vincent sank two free throws with 27 seconds remaining to tie the game at 50-50 and neither team had a chance for a buzzer-beater as the game moved into overtime.
UHS missed more free throws in overtime, shooting just 5-of-10, but is defense allowed just one Kennedy bucket to win 59-55.
“You’ve got go win games like that so I’m proud of them,” Lusk said. “I thought the effort was definitely there. We told them in the locker room if you didn’t given that effort, it would’ve been a different story at the end. We did give that effort and that’s why we were able to pull that one out.”
Simpson led UHS with 20 points, followed by Hannah Stemple’s 18. The Hawks hit four three-pointers, two from Simpson. University shot just 13-of-27 on free throws including just 6-of-15 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“That’s what we’ll be working on in practice on Monday,” Lusk said with a wry smile. “I told them don’t come in talking, get right to the line with the ball.”
The Mohigans faces similar shooting woes in the first game but played strong enough defense to get the convincing 15-point win.
“Defensively I thought the girls played really well,” MHS coach Doug Goodwin said. “We came in at halftime more upset offensively that we couldn’t get things to fall.”
Morgantown led 27-15 at the half but could’ve built an even bigger lead if they had gotten a few more shots to fall.
“We had similar looks to what we had (Friday),” Goodwin said. “In the fourth quarter we finally started hitting the ones we had been missing and that helped settle us down because we were getting a little rattled there.”
Albert Gallatin outscored MHS 12-6 in the third quarter, but the Mohigans turned in on in the fourth, hitting four three-pointers to lock up the win.
Sofia Wassick led MHS with 14 points while Lily Jordan had 10 and Lindsay Bechtel finished with eight.
Cortlyn Turner led AG with 11 and Grayce Panos scored 10.
University’s next game will be on the road at Parkersburg South on Tuesday while Morgantown will play another team from Pennsylvania, South Fayette, at home next Saturday.
Morgantown 50, Albert Gallatin 35
MHS 12 15 6 17 — 50
AG 11 4 12 8 — 35
MHS — Bechtel 2 2-2 8; Hawkins 2 0-0 6; Jordan 4 0-4 10; Henkins 1 0-0 3; Wassick 6 2-4 14; Smith 1 2-4 5; Chipps 2 0-0 4.
AG — Turner 5 1-1 11; Panos 4 0-0 10; Glisan 2 0-0 6; Michaux 3 0-2 6; Colgan 1 0-0 2.
3 Pt. Goals — MHS 8 (Bechtel 2, Hawkins 2, Jordan 2, Henkins 1, Smith 1). AG 4 (Panos 2, Glisan 2).
University 59, Kennedy Catholic 55, OT
KC 11 5 18 16 5 — 55
UHS 7 19 17 7 9 — 59
KC — Vincent 0 6-6 6; Bianco 5 3-4 13; Keith 0 0-2 0; Dancak 1 0-1 2; Fields 11 3-6 25; Magestro 3 1-2 9.
UHS — Sharkey 1 2-5 5; Gibson 3 0-4 6; E. Simpson 8 2-4 20; Stemple 6 6-8 18; Weaver 1 1-3 4; Maisel 1 0-0 2; Byers 1 0-1 2; Boateng 0 2-2 2.
3 Pt. Goals — KC 2 (all Magestro). UHS 4 (E. Simpson 2, Sharkey 1, Weaver 1).
TWEET @CodyNespor
