MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Ohio Valley Athletic Conference tournament semifinal match-up between the homestanding Morgantown High boys’ basketball team and Weir was a decided mismatch Tuesday.
The No. 2 Mohigans sprinted out to a 27-2 first quarter lead and rolled to an extra comfortable 88-24 victory.
It was sort of business as usual for the deep, sharp-shooting Mohigans (15-2), as they made a decent Red Riders team look quite a bit less than ordinary throughout the night.
A perfect indication of the game that was to follow occurred in the first few minutes when three consecutive pressure-induced Weir (10-7) turnovers led to a conventional three-point play and a dunk from Morgantown’s Xavier Pryor that sandwiched a smoothly-stroked triple from Alex Rudy.
That lightning-quick 8-0 lead just as quickly ballooned to a 22-2 lead by the two-minute mark of the quarter, and the rout was officially on for MHS.
Rudy continued to bury his jumpers from downtown, netting two more in the second quarter on his way to a game-high 17 points.
The real star of the game — as it has been all season — was the Mohigans’ in-your-face man defense, which limited Weir to single digits in all four quarters on the night.
MHS made shots on the offensive end to add to its lead — making more 3-pointers (14) than total field goals for the Red Riders (10).
Luke Bechtel shot confidently all game, scoring 14, Antonio Rollo hit for 11 and Pryor finished with 10 to pace the balanced Mohigans’ offensive effort. Morgantown finished with 11 different scorers on the night.
So often in games like this, teams can slip into a less intense, sloppy brand of basketball, but for Mohigans coach Dave Tallman, it doesn’t seem to matter on the floor: Morgantown only wants to play hard.
“I think it starts in practice,” senior Mac McMillen said. “Coach expects and makes sure that we go hard against each other every day and we just carry it over into games. We want to play a tough, physical game right from the opening tip, and kind of establish how the whole pace of the game is going to go. It’s our style, and we like it.”
Pryor agreed, and pointed out an additional advantage that MHS has over just about every team they’ve seen this season.
“We’re very deep — deepest in the state,” he insisted. “There’s no drop off when the second five come in. Plus even a couple more guys. So that allows us to go super hard 100% of the time on offense and especially on defense. Because we know our teammates have our backs, and they’re gonna come in and be just as tough to play against. It’s a big part of our success.”
With the OVAC championship game at noon Saturday comes another big reason why the Mohigans play every possession of every game at full tilt intensity.
They’ll face Class AAA No. 1 University, and they’re not happy about that number next to the Hawks’ ranking.
“We really want that No. 1 seed,” McMillen said. “We think that first round bye in the state tournament is something to shoot for. Plus, it’s UHS. They’re a really good team, and it will be the rubber match, so we’re looking forward to it very much. Those are the games that are the most fun.”
“It will be close late, because it always is between us,” Pryor said. “When it’s close between two good, evenly-matched teams, I think it will come down to heart. Who wants it more. If we stick to our game, and stay together, I feel good about our chances.”
