MORGANTOWN – The 18-1 Morgantown boys basketball team will travel to Harrison Central High School in Cadiz, Ohio on Saturday for a rematch of last year’s OVAC 5A championship game against Dover High School (Oh.).
The Crimson Tornadoes, who also hold an 18-1 record, bested MHS for the title last time around 70-54, as one of only four losses for the Mohigans a season ago. Despite Dover losing nearly 85 percent of its scoring production on offense, MHS head coach Dave Tallman and his staff and players know that they face a talented group of players that works well as a team.
“We are going to have to be very solid on defense in this game,” Tallman said, previewing the matchup. “They run a lot of different sets and they’re very methodical. We will need to find ways to make them uncomfortable.”
The Mohigans will play their fourth-straight game without it’s leading guard Sha-Ron Young, who has missed the last three games due to an injury to his right hand.
Despite its leading scorer and ballhandler being out, MHS has won all three games without Young, two against Wheeling Park and one against Spring Mills, all top ten teams in the polls.
Junior Izzy Everrett and Sophomore Marty Johnson have stepped up in Young’s absence to fill the empty guard spot. Johnson is capable of filling the point guard role to handle the ball and run the offense, while Everrett is able to score in any way on offense, as well as play solid defense and rebound.
“We are still a work in progress but we’ve had three nice wins against top eight teams,” Tallman said of his team’s adjustment to life without Young. “We have to execute better because Sha-Ron facilitated so much for us while he was on the floor. We still have a lot of good players who need to just rely on their strengths and step up while he’s out.”
One area that hasn’t taken too great of a hit for MHS is its defense, as less than 50 points were allowed across the three games with Young gone. The Mohigans have proved with and without a full roster that they can play any type of game, and win it also. They’ll play you in the 70’s and run up and down the floor, prepared for a shootout, or they’ll win a game in the 50’s with very solid defense.
“We’re averaging about 78 points per game but we’ve also won some of those fist fight-type of battles,” Tallman said. “We still need to take care of the ball a little better and execute on the offensive end at a higher rate. Defensively, we’ve got to stay disciplined and play hard for 32 minutes. When we play hard, pressure, and execute we have had a lot of success. We need to get rid of the stretches where we fall asleep or make dumb decisions.”
MHS and Dover will tip off from Harrison Central High in Cadiz and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.
TWEET – @ahhh_griff
