The Morgantown and Wheeling Park girls’ basketball teams have forged quite the rivalry over the past two seasons. The two squads matched up five times last season, twice in the regular season and then in the OVAC finals, sectional finals and state semifinals, with MHS winning four of the five contests.
Again this season it appears that the Patriots and Mohigans are destined to meet up with one another as they will have a rematch of last year’s OVAC Class 5A championship game Saturday at Harrison Central High School in Cadiz, Ohio.
In a reversal from last season, the Patriots have had the upper hand so far this winter, defeating the Mohigans in both of their regular-season meetings, winning 63-44 in Wheeling and 59-48 in Morgantown.
“We know (Morgantown) will be ready,” Park coach Ryan Young told the Wheeling Intelligencer this week. “I’m sure they are pretty hungry to beat us, especially in a game like this. We’ll be ready, too.”
Wheeling Park (18-1) has been the No. 1-ranked team in Class AAAA for most of this season and is the top seed in the OVAC field. Morgantown (14-4) is currently ranked No. 3 and is the two-seed in the conference tournament. Both teams handily won their OVAC semifinal matches on Monday, with Morgantown dispatching Marietta 54-19 and Park winning 77-56 over Warren.
Morgantown has won eight of its last nine games, with the lone loss coming to Wheeling Park. After his team hasn’t allowed 20 points in either of its last two outings, MHS coach Doug Goodwin feels the Mohigans are currently playing at their best.
“What we’re doing, we feel is working well defensively,’” Goodwin said after Monday’s game. “We’ve just got to get some more buckets to drop in for us. The girls feel good about the game, they’re looking forward to it so we’ll be ready to go.”
The Mohigans and Patriots will tip off the 5A championship at 4 p.m. at Harrison Central.
Other OVAC championship match-ups today are River and Wheeling Central in Class 2A (10 a.m.), Union Local and Fort Frye in 3A (noon), Indian Creek and Oak Glen in 4A (2 p.m.) and Cameron and Frontier in 1A (6 p.m.).
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