MORGANTOWN — Having playing experience is one of the most valuable things a team can possess in most sports and at most levels. Saturday evening, the Morgantown girls’ basketball team let their experience shine in a 65-59 victory on the road against cross-town rival University.
The Mohigans’ typical rotation of just seven players consists of three juniors and four seniors, with one of those seniors, Revaya Sweeney, coming off the bench as the sixth man for head coach Doug Goodwin and MHS.
With the core of the team having played together for so long and going as far as the state championship a year ago, the Mohigans kept calm under pressure when the scrappy defense and hot outside shooting of UHS kept the game close.
“When you have the experience on the floor that we do, it always helps,” Goodwin said of his team. “We are able to bring Revaya, a senior with a lot of playing experience, off the bench and she does well. It’s really nice when they’ve been there in these types of situations and know how to handle it.”
MHS shot 27 for 40 from the field as a team, with three players not missing a single shot.
Four Mohigans combined to go a perfect 14 for 14 from 2-point range as well. Junior point guard Sofia Wassick shot 9 for 9 from the field and took over in the third quarter to help keep her team in the game with the Hawks as the two teams traded baskets and the lead.
“Sofia does so much for us,” Goodwin said of Wassick, a first-team all-state selection from last year. “Her speed is hard to match up with and she makes some great decisions.”
The Hawks applied a full-court press that seemed to bug the Mohigans at first, but once again the MHS players were able to figure it out and eventually find success on the break, finding multiple layups. Wassick scored three on three straight trips down the court at one point.
“We were getting sped up and not making the right passes,” Wassick said after her 19-point effort. “We were able to control our emotions and calm down also and make the right adjustments.”
Sweeney, who comes off the bench as mentioned, said she tries to embrace her role by bringing the same energy and skill level that the starters have.
“My role is to keep the momentum going or try and get it going when it isn’t there,” she said. “Always having energy on and off of the floor is important and just trying to do what I’m best at.”
Although the seniors have been playing together for all four years at MHS, Sweeney says it’s the experience they have even before high school that helps just as much.
“More of the team has been playing together since before high school ball,” she said. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we can find our shooters and give them the ball. Everyone works well together.”
Goodwin also praised the mental strength of his team to deal with the late surge.
“I wrote on my board ‘control your emotions,'” he said. “I don’t think I did the best job of that but they sure did and it helped us greatly in the fourth quarter.”
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