MORGANTOWN — All of the scoring for the Morgantown boys’ basketball team (8-3) came from its starters, including four of them reaching double-figures, as it defeated visiting Wheeling Park (6-6) 73-58 on Tuesday night inside the Rowdie Center.
You couldn’t ask for much more intensity than was given by both teams from the opening tip. Early on, both teams were causing a few turnovers and making some shots. MHS found itself ahead early in the first 10-5, paced by six points from Brody Davis.
Park made it a game, however, holding serve with the state’s top-ranked team and shooting 3 of 4 from deep to begin the game. The Patriots found themselves only trailing by three and the end of one, 19-16.
“Give a lot of credit to Wheeling Park tonight, they had a great game plan and they shot the heck out of it,” Mohigans head coach Dave Tallman said. “That’s the best their team has ever shot the ball in our gym.”
Patriots standout freshman, Aiden Davis, who scored 24 points against University earlier this year, struggled throughout the game and only managed five points, highly due to the team defense of the Mohigans on Davis, throwing multiple players at him.
The pace began to slow in the second, but the deficit remained the same. Young forced Davis into a few turnovers to begin the quarter, which forced Park to switch its offense slightly. However, the Patriots answered the MHS pressure on defense and kept within striking distance, trailing only by 5 at the half, 35-30.
With Davis off the ball, Brett Phillips and Brendan Richter began to get hot for Wheeling Park. They each entered the third quarter and reached double-digit scoring. Richter was 5 of 8 from 3-point range in the game and scored 21 points off the bench to lead his team. Park shot 8 of 17 for the game from deep. Phillips would add 19 on 9 for 10 shooting, combining the two for 40 of Park’s 58 points.
Halfway through the third quarter, though, MHS put its foot on the gas and never look back.
With only a seven point lead at 54-47 going into the fourth, the Mohigans came out to score 12 points in four minutes and grew their lead to 12 with just four minutes to play. Brooks Gage scored 22 points to lead the Mohigans and Sha-Ron Young added 17. The game was called with just 90 seconds to play due to a fan emergency.
Morgantown will travel to John Marshall on Friday night before heading to Magnolia for a matchup with Parkersburg in the Magnolia Rotary Classic at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Morgantown (8-3)
Brooks Gage 14 3-4 22 Sharron Young 12 5-6 17 Brody Davis 6 2-2 13 Alec Poland 11 0-0 13 Jalen Goins 4 0-0 8 Ethan Marra 1 0-0 0
Wheeling Park (6-6)
Brendan Richter 12 0-0 21 Brett Phillips 10 1-3 19 Jayden Howard 2 0-0 6 Aiden Davis 7 1-2 5 Caleb Francis 6 0-1 5 Xandor Gibson 2 0-0 2
MORGANTOWN 19 16 19 19 – 73
WHEELING PARK 16 14 17 11 – 58
3-pointers: Morgantown – 5 (Gage 3, Poland 1, Davis 1); Wheeling Park – 8 (Richter 5, Howard 2, Francis 1)
