MORGANTOWN – There is a reason the Morgantown High School girls’ basketball team is ranked No. 1 in Class AAAA and the defending state champions.
They’re pretty darn good.
So good that the Mohigans (8-0) beat Parkersburg South 64-36 on Thursday and the Patriots (8-2) entered the contest with just one loss.
“They’re number one for a reason,” Parkersburg South coach Ed Davis said. “No one has come within 30 points of them all season. We were a little amped up at the beginning of the game and sailed some passes and that limited our transition game.”
Limiting the transition game was exactly what MHS head coach Doug Goodwin had in mind.
“That was a big focus for us tonight,” Goodwin said. “Everything we watched on film; they just want to transition and get out and get buckets. Our focus was to get back, keep the ball contained in front of us and just really work hard on the defensive side.”
South hung with the Mohigans for much of the first quarter as a 3-pointer from Emilee Owens tied the game at 13-13 before MHS went on a 14-4 run that spanned the last minute of the first quarter and much of the second quarter.
“At that point, I thought we were getting good boards,” Goodwin said of the game-sealing run. “We really hit the defensive boards better at that point in time. We were able to control the ball and control the tempo of the game a little bit.”
MHS was patient on offense much of they night as it worked the ball around the perimeter before either dumping the ball into Lily Jordan in the post or driving to the bucket for an easy shot.
Jordan finished with a game-high 21 points while Sadaya Jones added 20 points and five rebounds and freshman guard Kayli Kellogg added 17.
“We thought we could attack (the basket) and in the first quarter we made a little adjustment,” Goodwin said. “We work on those things daily and we kept telling the girls it was there – just don’t fade away and attack.”
Once the MHS offense started clicking that matched the smothering defense and the Patriots had no answer.
“Morgantown does such a great job of getting back on defense,” Davis said. “I thought we had some chances early to get into transition, but they really limited that during the rest of the game.”
Parkersburg South hit just 13 field goals in the contest and shot 26.5 percent from the field including 3-of-19 from behind the arc.
This was the first game for MHS since a Dec. 22 contest against Bridgeport. The Mohigans return to action on Friday, Jan. 12 when they travel to Cabell Midland for a 7:30 p.m. contest.
By ERIC HERTER
