MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It’s fitting the postseason for the Morgantown High girls’ basketball team begins with COVID-19 at the forefront.
This time, COVID issues at Brooke forced the Bruins to prematurely end their season, and as a result, the Mohigans received the forfeit win for Tuesday’s originally scheduled game. Now, MHS advanced to Friday’s Class 4A Region I, Section 1 championship against Wheeling Park at the Rowdy Center. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
The Mohigans certainly sympathize with Brooke after MHS dealt with its own COVID problems this offseason and to start the regular season. Just a few days into preseason practice, the team had to shut down and quarantine for 14 days , and was late starting game action compared to other teams across the state.
“It was difficult having the entire team quarantined at the beginning of the season then playing pretty tough teams, not knowing if we’ll be well conditioned and have our normal chemistry,” sophomore guard Revaya Sweeney said.
Luckily, MHS did not have a single senior on last year’s team that was a co-Region I champion and reached the state tournament. Everyone was back, including the senior trio of DePaul signee Kaitlyn Ammons, Cat Wassick and Berit Johnson.
A host of role players, including Sweeney, also returned, but having to jump right back in after an unexpected pause led to questions about whether the Mohigans would be ready.
Those questions were answered strongly as they finished the regular season at 9-2 with seven wins against ranked teams. The only losses were a 2-point defeat to No. 2 Wheeling Park and to No. 3 Cabell Midland.
MHS, like many other teams, ended the regular season early to avoid COVID issues with contact tracing, last playing a week ago.
While the senior trio for the Mohigans are averaging a combined 32 points, 16 rebounds and six assists per game, many underclassman have provided depth all season. The sophomore group of Mia Henkins, Lindsay Bechtel, Kate Hawkins and Sweeney are each averaging over eight minutes per game.
Sweeney played sparingly as a freshman last year and she wanted take a big step forward heading into this year, especially with how she was perceived with teammates.
“I wanted to learn how to push myself on the court for every game, become the best teammate I can be and also help my teammates be the best player they can be,” she said. “Personally, this season for me, I started to open up more and actually play my game. I thrive on high competition and it felt great being able to play against some amazing players. I’m looking forward to stepping on the court more and more and showing what I can do the next couple years for the MHS girls’ basketball program.”
Sweeney is averaging 4.3 points and 2.1 rebounds per game as a role player off the bench, and she’s hoping to end the season with something the Mohigans haven’t done since 2016.
“A state title,” she said, emphatically.
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