ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio – Sometimes, basketball can simply be a game of momentum.
That was the case in Saturday’s OVAC Class 5A championship game.
Steubenville seemed to have all of the momentum for much of the first half, but top-seeded Morgantown captured it late in the second quarter and never gave it back, using a big second half to storm back from a double-digit deficit and capture the conference title with a 70-64 victory inside the ECO Center.
“Sometimes it can be hard to get my guys focused to come over here and play … we came out very sluggish, but I give our guys a lot of credit, they battled back and got back to playing our style in the second half,” Morgantown head coach Dave Tallman said after his team repeated as champions. “We showed a lot of toughness and resilience. We’ve won a lot of championships, that’s not bragging, it’s just that these guys know how to win.
“I thought we were dead in the water there for a while, give a lot of credit to coach Haney and his guys, they really punched us in the mouth but we didn’t fold. I’m really proud of my guys for that.”
After holding a narrow lead at the end of the first quarter, Steubenville (17-3) led by as many as 17 points after an 8-0 run with just over two minutes to go in the first half, but the Mohigans (14-1) connected on 3-pointers on each of their final three possessions before the break, including a buzzer-beater to cut the deficit back to sigle digits at eight (42-34).
“It’s definitely a tough one,” Big Red head coach Mike Haney said. “We were in a good spot until about the last two minutes of the second quarter. They hit those 3s, the last one at the buzzer cutting it from 11 to single digits and then in the third quarter our shots just stopped falling. We still played good defense, we were tied at the end of the third and had our chances, but we just weren’t shooting the ball well at all.
“It was a momentum game and we had it most of the fitst half, but about that last minute and a half of the second quarter they got it, and once they had it, it’s hard to get it back.
“They’re a really good team, they’re the three-time West Virginia state champs for a reason.”
After scoring 19 and 23 in the first and second, Big Red’s shots stopped falling as they were held to just 10 and 12 in the third and fourth. Morgantown, meanwhile, Scored 18 in both of the final two quarters. After shooting 46.7 percent and 50 percent in the first two quarters, Big Red shot just 28.6 percent in the third and 31.3 percent in the fourth.
After trimming into the margin more early in the second half, the Mohigans went on a 10-0 run in the third quarter to take their first lead since the opening eight minutes on a Marty Johnson 3-pointer.
Big Red knotted the score up at 52-52 going to the fourth, but the Mohigans netted the first four points to pull back ahead. Steubenville led one more time, but the Mohigans pulled away for good, going 7 of 10 from the foul line in the final minute to put things away.
Johnson was named the game MVP for the Mohigans, netting 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks, each of which were team-highs.
Marcus Goins hit four 3s for Morgantown, finishing with 17 points and four boards. Brady Savage tallied 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Mohigans finished with a 43-28 advantage on the glass.
For Big Red, Will Taylor finished with a game-high 22 points, also collecting four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal. Aiden Davis netted 14 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Tre’Von Wiggins finished with 17 points, making a game-high five 3s, to go with five rebounds. Santino Haney netted nine points, five boards and four assists.
— Story by Andrew Grimm
Box score
STEUBENVILLE (17-3)
Davis 5-18 2-2 14; Haney 4-10 1-1 9; Wiggins 6-12 5-7 17; Bowers 0-4 0-0 0; Taylor 8-16 6-7 22; Rea 1-1 0-0 2; Hinton 0-0 0-0 0; Adams 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 24-61, 9-10; 64.
MORGANTOWN (14-1)
Frey 1-8 7-7 9; Bandy 1-4 0-0 2; Johnson 7-9 5-8 21; Colistra 3-5 0-1 6; Savage 6-8 0-1 6; Goins 5-12 3-4 17; Ridgeway 0-2 0-0 0; Kellogg 1-4 0-0 3; Himes 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 24-52, 15-21; 70.
3-pointers: Steubenville 7 (Wiggins 5, Davis 2); Morgantown 7 (Goins 4, Johnson 2, Kellogg). Assists: Steubenville 11 (Haney 4); Morgantown 9 (Johnson 5). Rebounds: Steubenville 28 (Haney 5, Wiggins 5, Bowers 5); Morgantown 43 (Johnson 7, Savage 7)
