MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown boys basketball team has stayed true to its havoc-style defense so far this season and called upon it Tuesday night to help pull away from visiting Steubenville (Oh.) 82-41 in the semifinals of the OVAC 5A tournament.
MHS head coach Dave Tallman earned his 300th-career win with the victory, 205 at Morgantown and 95 at St. Mary’s Ryken (Md.), as his team earned the chance to play for the 5A title for the second straight year.
Morgantown senior duo Izzy Everett and Sharron Young paced their team in scoring with Everett leading the way with 19, hitting four from downtown. Young finished with 16 points going 7 for 13 from the field with a pair from deep.
“We had a lot of success this weekend (at the Greenbrier Resort) and played one step ahead in both games, but today I thought we came out a step behind,” Tallman said. “We were missing some deflections and steals that we wanted but they got it going right away in the second quarter.”
A lightning-fast pace in the first quarter didn’t even see a stoppage in play until the 1:33 mark of the opening eight minutes. The two sides traded the lead back and forth as each team answered the other on the offensive end. The Mohigans (17-1) led by one point late in the quarter,16-15 but got a pair of free throws from Waylon Colistra and a three at the buzzer from Marty Johnson that extended that lead to six points.
The Big Red (7-9) kept pace in the first but began to have trouble with the defensive pressure MHS applied and was forced to call a timeout to open the second quarter.
The lead grew from six to 11 with 4:00 left in the second and swelled to 21 points as the Mohigans used a 23-8 advantage in the frame to hold a 44-23 lead going into the break.
MHS didn’t ease up to begin the second half either as Steubenville didn’t score its first points until the 5:15 mark on a pair of free throws by freshman Santino Haney. Young picked up his fourth foul but the lead was too great for his absence to be felt. Plus, MHS was getting production from every player that touched the floor.
Eight different Mohigans had scored by the end of the third quarter, with 10 threes coming from five different players.
Six players scored at least nine points for MHS, with junior Brady Savage joining Young and Everett in double-figures with 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting.
“When we share the ball I think we are pretty deadly and the scoring has been more balanced recently,” Tallman said. “That’s certainly good to see at this point in the season. To be able to keep winning and be where we want to be we need every one of our guys to contribute, not just Sharron or Izzy. We need everybody ready to help out.”
The Mohigans will advance to play No. 2 Wheeling Park on Saturday for the OVAC 5A championship, a game Morgantown lost last season to Dover (Oh.).
After the game, Tallman gathered with many members of his former, and current, squads.
“It’s been a blessing to coach with the people I have and to have coached the players I have,” he said. “I don’t take anyone of them for granted and love them all.”
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 82, Steubenville (Oh.) 41
Stb 15 8 10 8 – 41
MHS 21 23 23 15 – 82
STEUBENVILLE — Wiggins 5 0-0 14; Haney 4 7-8 15; Hopkins 0 3-4 3; Lewis 1 0-0 3; Lester 2 0-0 4; Casinelli 1 0-1 2.
MORGANTOWN — Everett 5 5-6 19; Young 7 0-0 16; Savage 5 2-7 12; Shrewsberry 3 2-2 9; Colistra 3 3-4 9; M. Johnson 3 0-0 9; Frey 1 1-2 4; King 2 0-0 4.
3-Pt. Goals — Steubenville 5 (Wiggins 4, Lewis 1). Morgantown 10 (Everett 4, Johnson 3, Young 2, Shrewsberry 1, Frey 1).
