MORGANTOWN – On Tuesday night, Morgantown’s Brody Davis was in shooting range as soon as he walked in the gym.
The 6-foot-5 junior scored 17 points including five 3-pointers as he helped the Mohigans (18-4) pick up a 80-43 victory over visiting Brooke in the Class AAAA Region I, Section 1 semifinal.
“Brody works at it,” MHS head coach David Tallman said. “He is always on me to get into the gym and get some extra shots up. All these guys work extremely hard and that’s why we shoot it as good as we do.”
Morgantown finished the night hitting 51.6% (32 of 62) of their field goals, including 40% from behind the arc. That shooting and their depth helped the Mohigans stifle a Brooke team that has rebounded from a three-win season two years ago to a 14-9 mark this year.
“Respect is an understatement of what we think of their program,” Brooke head coach Adam Shinsky said. “They are just really good. From one through how many they play, they are really good.”
Tallman said he has 14 players on the roster and all of them can play at any given time. It’s that depth that helps his No. 1 ranked team prepare for a potentially long tournament run.
“We have a lot of depth,” Tallman said. “Our practices are tough. We have 14 guys that can all really play.”
In fact, Tallman said practice Wednesday is going to be tough as he was disappointment with his team’s defensive performance. Especially in the third quarter which saw the Bruins score 18 after only notching 19 in the entire first half.
“We will probably go 7-on-7 tomorrow and we will go live,” Tallman said. “We have really got to shore up our defense. I really wasn’t very happy with our defense tonight.”
Shinsky pointed to the depth the Mohigans have as a big reason they are favorites to win the state title this year. The Bruins played only six players much of the contest and only had four score points.
“That’s kind of been our problem,” Shinsky said. “We have two 1,000-point scorers on this team, which is rare, we have done some good things – but we need more players to step up. We had a tough schedule this year with losses to Morgantown, Wheeling Park, University and Linsly. We are going to keep grinding and not just settle for a winning season.”
Brooke’s Alex Isinghood led all scorers with 20 points while Cole Sperlazza scored 12.
Brooks Gage scored 17 for the Mohigans with six rebounds, while Alec Poland added 16 points with seven rebounds. Point guard Sha-Ron Young added eight points with 11 assists and six rebounds.
Davis, who scored all of his points in the first and third quarters, said this was one of his better shooting nights.
“Whenever you hit one and then you see two fall, you think it might be your night,” Davis said.
Morgantown returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday when it hosts Wheeling Park which grabbed a 53-34 victory over John Marshall on Tuesday.
By ERIC HERTER
Brooke (14-9)
Knox 2 0-0 5, Isinghood 8 4-4 20, Sperlazza 4 1-2 12, Varner 2 1-2 6, Taylor 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 6-8 43.
Morgantown (18-4)
Poland 6 2-3 16, Gage 7 1-1 17, Goins 2 1-1 5, Young 3 1-2 8, Davis 6 0-0 17, Danser 3 0-0 6, Marra 1 0-0 2, Neal 1 1-2 3, Shrewsberry 1 0-0 2, King 1 0-0 2. Totals 32 6-9 80.
1 2 3 4 F
Brooke 7 12 18 6 43
MHS 21 23 26 10 80
3-pointers – Brooke: Sperlazza 3, Knox, Varner. MHS: Davis 5, Poland 2, Gage 2, Young.
