MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown Mohigans and the University Hawks took the Mohawk Bowl to the hardwood inside the Rowdie Center on Friday night for the first of two regular-season matchups between the crosstown rivals.
Morgantown (6-1) entered Friday’s contest having lost on its homecourt for the first time in 50 tries Tuesday against Spring Mills, while the Hawks (8-2) came into the evening having won seven straight games.
The Mohigans responded positively to Tuesday night with a decisive 77-43 victory over the visiting Hawks, who were playing their third game in five days.
Three players scored in double figures, led by senior Marty Johnson with 17 points. Fellow senior Brady Savage and junior Waylon Colistra each added 16.
Sophomore Luke Byrer led UHS with 10 points.
“I thought we were a little passive on Tuesday,” MHS head coach Dave Tallman said. “Tonight we got back to what we do and played Morgantown basketball. We shared the ball and made some shots, but defensively is where it always starts.”
In the game’s opening minutes, MHS did just as Tallman said: shared the ball, made shots, and played defense.
Senior Demarcus Bandy gave the Mohigans an early advantage midway through the first quarter with a big block on the defensive end before hustling down the court to find his spot and nail a triple (the third of the quarter for MHS). He finished with five points, six rebounds, three assists, and three steals in the contest.
That forced the game’s first timeout by the Hawks, who trailed 13-5 early.
Johnson hit a triple out of the timeout as the Mohigans took a 25-15 lead into the second quarter. He finished with eight points, three assists, and two rebounds in the opening eight minutes.
Both clubs began the second quarter slower offensively, combining for just four points through the first four minutes.
Despite UHS not giving up baskets to the Mohigans to open the quarter, it couldn’t answer the defensive stops with points on offense.
MHS ended the half on an 11-6 run, taking a 38-23 advantage into the locker room at the break.
“They had us scouted well, and we didn’t have the necessary time to prepare how we would’ve liked, this being our third game this week,” UHS head coach Joe Schmidle said. “We got killed on the boards; I think we only had four rebounds at halftime, and I don’t know how many second-chance points they had, but that played a huge role in the game. We had some missed assignments on defense and gave their bigs too many easy buckets.”
The Mohigans opened the second half with a 10-4 run as they began to pull away. The lead swelled to 48-27 with 4:58 left in the third quarter.
Johnson, who finished the game with six assists, four rebounds, and his game-high 17 points, helped put the exclamation point on a 26-point effort by MHS in the third by finding Colistra in the open court for a massive jam to end the frame.
MHS outscored the Hawks 13-7 in the final quarter to get back in the win column.
“We have great kids, and we keep telling them we need to flip that switch,” Tallman said. “We keep telling them they’re great people, but once you cross those lines, it’s time to be a different kind of person.”
Morgantown will return to action on Monday when it will battle Grafton in Sabraton at Trinity Christian School at 3:30 p.m.
University will return home to host Parkersburg South on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 77, University 43
UHS 15 8 16 7 – 43
MHS 25 13 26 13 – 77
University (8-2) – Byrer 5 0-0 10 Demidovich 3 3-3 9 Brown 3 1-2 7 Adams 3 0-0 7 Barnes 3 0-0 8 Karpinski 0 1-2 1 Toler 0 1-2 1
Morgantown (6-1) – Johnson 5 4-4 17 Savage 6 1-5 16 Colistra 6 4-5 16 Frey 3 2-2 8 Ridgeway 3 0-0 7 Kellogg 2 0-0 6 Bandy 2 0-0 5
3pt goals made: University 3 (Barnes 2 Adams 1); Morgantown 8 (Johnson 3 Kellogg 2 Ridgeway 1 Frey 1 Savage 1)
