MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown girls’ basketball team is heading to Charleston with one goal in mind this week — to come home with a state title.
The Mohigans (20-5) are heading back to the WVSSAC state tournament after finishing as Class AAAA runners-up last season. Losing last season’s state championship to Huntington by just five points has the Mohigans motivated to come out on top this year.
“Losing to Huntington by five, single-digit points, obviously we really want to win this year,” junior point guard Sofia Wassick said. “We’re ready for that championship and we’re going to do whatever we can to get it.”
Morgantown earned its spot in the tournament by winning a hard-nosed regional co-final over rival University High last week.
“We have a taste for the tournament, we have a taste for the state championship game and that taste is still in our mouth,” junior Lily Jordan said. “We want it and we want it bad. We know that we’ve got to work to get there; we know it’s not going to be handed to us.”
MHS is the two-seed in the Class AAAA bracket and will open the tournament with a quarterfinal against No. 7 Princeton Tuesday at 1 p.m. Princeton (11-14) knocked off George Washington in a Region III co-final.
First-year MHS head coach Doug Goodwin is keeping things simple while in the state’s capital. He said while the team is aiming for a title, they will be singularly focused on the game in front of them.
“Find out who we’re playing next and focus on that game, period,” Goodwin said of his team’s mindset.
The other quarterfinals in Class AAAA are No. 1 Wheeling Park vs. No. 8 Washington, No. 3 Spring Valley vs. No. 6 Woodrow Wilson and No. 4 Greenbrier West vs. No. 5 Webster County.
With a win, Morgantown would play either Spring Valley or Woodrow Wilson in a semifinal on Thursday at 11:15 a.m. The Class AAAA championship will be played Saturday at 10 a.m.
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