MORGANTOWN – The Rowdie Center hosted a matchup of the top two girls basketball teams in the state in Class AAAA as No. 1 Morgantown welcomed No. 2 Spring Valley on Saturday afternoon.
The Timberwolves (16-2) left Wilson Avenue with a 48-40 victory over the Mohigans (15-3), sealing the victory with an 8-0 run late in the fourth quarter, which proved to be the difference.
Spring Valley’s Brooklyn Ellis led all scorers with 20 points, including six three-pointers.
MHS was led by sophomore Kayli Kellogg, with 16 points and three triples.
“I felt like we had all the momentum in the fourth quarter when we went up by two with about four minutes to go,” MHS head coach John Fowkes said. “But the next two offensive possessions, we came down and took some bad shots. They came down and hit a couple of threes, and you can’t do that against a team like Spring Valley that has the experience that they have.”
Spring Valley started the game hot from three-point range, nailing its first three attempts and leading 9-2 early in the first quarter.
The Mohigans quickly picked up their defensive effort, though, and sophomore Tatum Devries sparked the offense with two triples, as the lead was cut to one possession, 11-8.
Spring Valley used a 5-0 run midway through the quarter to open an eight-point lead, 16-8, but wouldn’t score for the remainder of the frame.
Kayli Kellogg and DeVries hit back-to-back triples as the Mohigans closed the first quarter on a 6-0 run and trailed 16-14 entering the second.
The second quarter saw just ten points in total, as each team scored only five points across the eight minutes, leading to halftime, with the Timberwolves leading 21-19.
Kellogg and Spring Valley’s Dria Parker traded triples to begin the third quarter, and the Timberwolves held a one-possession lead throughout most of the frame.
Another three-pointer for the visitors gave Spring Valley a 31-27 lead heading to the fourth.
MHS tied the game at 31 to begin the final quarter and eventually took a two-point lead midway through, 35-33 on a jumper by Brenna Nelson.
But turnovers began to haunt the Mohigans as Spring Valley converted two steals into five points, including Ellis’ fifth triple, to take a 38-35 lead.
Nelson hit another jumper to cut the lead to 40-38 with 2:40 left in the contest but Spring Valley got a layup by Allie Daniels and another triple by Ellis, pulling the Timberwolves ahead 45-38, and giving them the lead for good.
“You know I hate losing, but I think we can take something from this game and use it to our advantage,” Fowkes said. “We had a lot of players step up for us tonight, and we will need to play well for us down the stretch. I think we can build on this game.”
BOX SCORE
Spring Valley 48, Morgantown 40
SV 16 5 10 17
MHS 14 5 8 13
Spring Valley (16-2) – Ellis 7 0-0 20 Parker 3 2-2 11 Daniels 6 1-1 13 Giles 1 0-0 2 Hutchison 0 2-2 2
Morgantown (15-3) – Kellogg 5 3-4 16 DeVries 3 0-0 9 Nelson 3 0-0 6 Hatcher 2 0-0 4 Deusenberry 0 3-4 3 Messerly 1 0-0 2
3pt goals made – Spring Valley 9 (Ellis 6 Parker 3); Morgantown 6 (Kellogg 3 DeVries 3)
