NITRO — Morgantown coach John Fowkes was a happy camper on Monday following the Mohigans’ 66-47 victory over Class AAA No. 1 Nitro.
Fowkes walked off the floor at Alumni Arena pleased and happy with his team’s performance because Morgantown shot 53% from the floor in the victory.
Morgantown finished Monday’s contest shooting 24 of 45 from the floor and 12 of 21 (57%) from long distance.
The Mohigans move to 17-3 on the year and move to 11-1 in 2025.
“That’s been part of the gameplan all year to shoot the threes when you can take them,” Fowkes said. “We have great shooters out there. A lot of people think they’re going to face guard Kayli [Kellogg] and take her out of the game. Well, it opens up other people.
“I keep saying it, but she’s the state player of the year in West Virginia. We showed toughness tonight. We are physically tough and get after it.”
Nitro falls to 16-4 this season and suffer its first loss since Feb. 1 against Wheeling Park, 66-59, in overtime.
The Wildcats were held to 16 for 48 (33%) from the floor and turned the ball over 14 times.
“Morgantown is the No. 2 team in [Class AAAA] for a reason,” Nitro coach Pat Jones said. “We came out today with a lack of intensity and effort. They came down here to prove a point. They humbled us. We needed this loss heading into the postseason.
“Some of us were riding the high horse, and we needed the loss for us to realize we’re a good basketball team, but we’re not a great basketball team.
“In practices, we have a lot of laughing, joking around and goofing off,” Jones continued. “That showed us why we need to focus more in practices.”
Monday’s contest was Morgantown’s final game of the regular season before the postseason beginning next week.
The Mohigans earned the No. 1 seed in the Class AAAA Region 1 field.
They’ll play the winner of John Marshall and Buckhannon-Upshur next Tuesday.
“This was a state tournament scenario,” Fowkes said. “The gym was packed and there was a lot of energy. There were a lot of people against us. We’re easy not to like because Morgantown is always a good team. It gave us more confidence.”
Nitro, unlike Morgantown, still has games to play this week as the Wildcats finish the regular season with games against Herbert Hoover and St. Albans.
Jones, like he said, wants his team to pocket the loss and grow from it with two games remaining before postseason.
“Our help side defense and hedging on the screens weren’t good,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of small things that we work on in practice that we didn’t do tonight. It falls on me as a coach. I have to get the girls more focused heading into the postseason. Today is not a loss but a learning experience.
“We have to learn from this if we want to make another shot at the state tournament and another state title.”
Both teams traded buckets to begin the game before Morgantown broke open a 10-0 run to take a 16-7 advantage.
The run was largely sparked by Kayli Kellogg as she scored seven of the 10 points with Tatum DeVries scoring the other three.
Nitro’s Bri Gibson drilled a basket with 18 seconds left, but Kellogg responded with a runner with two seconds left to give the Mohigans a nine-point leaed, 18-9, after one.
The second quarter started the same way the first quarter did with neither side expanding on its lead or cutting into the deficit.
Morgantown maintained its advantage throughout the quarter. However, DeVries drilled back-to-back triples with to take a 31-19 lead.
DeVries finished the opening half with 15 points while going a perfect 5 for 5 from long distance.
“That opened her confidence up,” Fowkes said. “Our bench was into it. We had a lot of energy. We’re special on the defense side, which ignited us there as well.”
The Mohigans held the Wildcats to 7 of 25 (28%) from the floor and 2 of 11 from long distance in the opening half.
Morgantown’s 47% percent shooting in the opening half gave the Mohigans a 31-19 lead at halftime.
The Mohigans held Nitro leading scorer Natalie Smith to 33% shooting and six points in the opening half.
Smith finished the game with 15 points on Monday.
“The plan against her was to be physical,” Fowkes said. “She’s a physical basketball player. We told our players that she likes to bang so we have to bang with her. I think we frustrated her in the paint. Whenever she put it on the floor we always had someone right there digging into her.”
An 8-0 spurt in the third quarter stretched the Mohigans lead out to 20, 44-24.
Morgantown went in the final quarter with a 19-point lead at 48-29.
The Mohigans out-scored the Wildcats 14-10 to start the fourth quarter, which slammed the door in Nitro’s face.
Morgantown’s second half effort was sparked by a scoring outpour from Kellogg.
The sophomore guard finished with a game-high 29 points, including 20 in the second half.
The Wildcats were led by sophomore Brooklyn Cawley who poured in a team-high 19 points, connecting on five triples.
— Story by Taylor Kennedy
Box score
MORGANTOWN (17-3)
Kellogg 10-16 4-5 29, DeVries 5-6 1-2 16, Deusenberry 4-6 0-0 9, Nelson 3-9 0-0 7, Hatcher 1-1 0-0 2, Porter 1-3 0-0 2, Jones 0-2 1-2 1.NITRO (16-4)
Cawley 7-15 0-1 19, Smith 6-15 3-4 15, Sigman 0-0 6-6 6, Gibson 2-8 0-0 4, Edwards 1-7 0-2 2, Jones 0-0 1-2 1.
3-pointers: Morgantown 12 (DeVries 5, Kellogg 5, Deusenberry 1, Nelson 1). Nitro 5 (Cawley 5) Rebounds: Morgantown 15 (Kellogg 4). Nitro 9 (Smith 4).
