MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It’s been a magical week for some Morgantown-area basketball teams and business as usual for others. Regardless of what side of the spectrum they’re on, the outcome has been the same for almost every team: They’ve advanced to the next stages of the postseasons.
But first, the magical moments.
After suffering a heartbreaking loss to rival University in the Region I, Section 2 finals, the Morgantown girls’ team was pitted against the best team in the state, Wheeling Park, on their home floor. What seemed like a shoo-in for the No. 1 Patriots (20-4), Morgantown (14-11) defied all odds and edged Park 50-49 with a last-second layup and-1 by junior guard Cat Wassick. Wassick, silent in the Mohigans’ previous loss to UHS, netted 10 points in the contest. Kaitlyn Ammons and Berit Johnson had 16 and 14 points, respectively, and Ammons was just shy of a double-double with nine rebounds.
“Considering the situations, I think this is as big of a win that there ever has been in program history,” Morgantown coach Jason White said after the game. “This is a team that started off 1-6, and at one point we were 5-10, with no seniors. To battle back … all the credit goes to them.”
The Mohigans slip into the state tournament as the No. 7 seed and will face No. 2 Woodrow Wilson. The Flying Eagles are 1-0 over Morgantown, only playing MHS in the Big Atlantic tournament where they defeated the then 5-9 team. Tipoff is set for Wednesday at 11:15 a.m. – the earliest game of the day. The winner will advance to face the winner of No. 3 Greenbrier East-No. 6 Martinsburg 9 p.m. on March. 13.
Trinity upsets rival No. 10 Clay-Battelle
Tuesday night saw another major upset, but this time it was in Class A. Trinity Christian, 1-1 against the 10th-ranked Cee-Bees, broke away early in the first quarter to upset their rival.
Clay-Battelle managed to fight back within single digits throughout the second half, but the Warriors (12-11) maintained and held off C-B. It was of sound thinking throughout the season that this was the year Clay-Battelle (18-6) would make the state tournament for the first time since 2014, but the young Warriors defied the odds to advance and face No. 6 Notre Dame (17-6) Thursday night in the Region II, Section 1 finals in Clarksburg.
A close 56-52 loss to the Fighting Irish, however, puts Trinity in a tough spot as they’re going to face Friday’s winner of the Pendleton County-Moorefield matchup. The fifth-ranked Wildcats are currently 20-0 while Moorefield is 12-12
However, two players in different stages of their high school careers have exploded in the postseason for TCS which gives them a fighting chance against what will likely be a matchup with the Wildcats. Senior Seth Goins led the Warriors on Tuesday night with 33 points, while Drew Boczek – who only had four points – has been pickpocketing opponents left and right in the last two games. And TCS coach John Fowkes isn’t afraid to put his freshmen in what may seem like unrealistic spots. To him, they’re better than typical freshmen.
“We key a lot of our defense around the freshmen – it’s crazy to say that, I know. The kid [Boczek] has a lot of swagger, there’s no fear in him. That kid’s not a freshman basketball-wise, he plays like a junior or senior,” Fowkes said. “He’s a kid that every coach wants on his team, and I praise God that we have Drew Boczek.”
Hawks and Mohigans: Just another day at the office
The University boys’ and girls’ teams, both top-10 teams in the West Virginia Associated Press Poll throughout the year, have had no heartache in the postseason. To them, it’s just another game.
The girls’ team managed to hold off a first-half push by Buckhannon-Upshur in the Section 2 semifinals, but held strong and defeated the Lady Buccaneers to move onto the sectional finals. There they defeated MHS to host regionals, taking on John Marshall (10-15). UHS only gave up seven points and two field goals in the first half before maintaining the monster lead to the final buzzer, winning 72-46. All seniors – Ashten Boggs, Mallory Napolillo and Abbie Coen – scored in double digits. Coen led the trio with 19 points, while Boggs and Napolillo each had 17.
The Lady Hawks (18-7) enter the state tournament as the No. 5 seed and will face Cabell Midland in Thursday’s installment of the quarterfinals at 11:15 a.m. The victor will move on to face the winner of No. 1 Parkersburg-No. 8 Spring Mills in the semifinals on March 13. Should the Hawks face the Big Reds, it would be a rematch of last year’s Class AAA state finals when PHS defeated UHS.
“It’s a big deal to our girls and I’m really proud of them,” UHS girls’ coach David Price said. “Hopefully, we go down there with something to prove. I do feel like we’re playing our basketball at the right time. Who can say, though? That’s why you have to play them.”
On the boys’ side of the playoffs, which just started on Wednesday, the first-ranked Hawks cruised to an easy win over Preston High, overcoming their neighboring county rival 100-66 even with K.J. McClurg fighting a slight illness. The victory comes just a week after they defeated the Knights in Kingwood, nearly hitting the century mark again, 96-63.
Kaden Metheny led the Hawks (20-3) with 32 points, and three others helped him out in double digits: John Ross Mazza (11), Aaron Forbes (11), McClurg (13) and Ryan Niceler (10).
“We shot it well in the first half,” UHS boys’ coach Joe Schmidle said. “We basically took care of business. John Ross was big early for us, and if he’s playing well and knocking shots down on the perimeter, we can be tough to match up against. I think we need to work on defending 3s better. If we give up nine 3-pointers a game, we’re in trouble, but all in all, I was happy.”
The win sends them to the sectional finals against Morgantown (20-3). The Mohigans dominated Buckhannon-Upshur (12-11) from tipoff to the final buzzer Wednesday, eventually ending the Bucs’ season with a 78-49 win.
Morgantown hit 45% of their shots – after tossing up lackadaisical 3-point attempts, which stunted their final stats – and held B-U to just 19 points in the first half. Alex Rudy led the bunch with 26 points, while the MHS defense forced 22 turnovers. Should their defense and tip-top shooting hold – two things that were uncharacteristically nonexistent in the OVAC championship against UHS – the Hawks could be in danger of dropping their second straight Region I championship to MHS.
“We’ve got to play with a chip on our shoulder and I think [we did that] tonight. This is probably the most unselfish team I’ve ever coached,” MHS coach Dave Tallman said after defeating B-U. “They really like each other, share the ball and find the open guy. We haven’t been turning the ball over the last five or six games, and if we don’t do that we’ll be hard to beat. I think we’re the best two teams in the state, and I think it’s going to be a heck of an environment. We just have to go out there and play our type of basketball. We’ve got to play hard and take it to them.”
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