MORGANTOWN — The Little General Holiday Classic concluded on Saturday afternoon as the Morgantown Mohigans boys basketball team battled the Woodrow Wilson Flying Eagles inside the Rowdie Center at Morgantown High School.
Woodrow Wilson (2-1) held a slight advantage 12-10 after the first quarter but MHS (5-0) eventually found some offensive success and used a 17-0 run between the first and second quarters to pull away to a double-digit lead before halftime.
The Flying Eagles were able to get the lead as close as one possession in the second half, but the Mohigans ended the third quarter strong and were able to pull away in the fourth quarter for a 55-41 victory.
MHS senior Sharron Young led all scorers with 21 points, while Izzy Everett added 12. Coby Dillon led WW with 14 points, including four triples.
“You have to give Beckley credit first of all, they played without their best player (Elijah Redfern) and played extremely hard,” MHS head coach Dave Tallman said. “We couldn’t get a shot to fall in the first quarter but I wasn’t upset with our defense. Our offense isn’t very good at the moment but we will get that fixed.”
Neither team started well on offense in fact, as the opening three minutes of the game didn’t see a single point. Eventually, the shots started falling for WW as all of its 12 points in the opening frame came from behind the arc.
Trailing 12-5 with 1:32 left in the opening quarter, the Mohigans would go on a 17-0 run between the first and second quarters to open a 27-11 lead. But WW ended the half on a high note and cut the lead to single digits at 31-23 going into the locker room.
“The way we play defense, we know the run should eventually come,” Tallman said. “You trade punches for a while and I thought Marty Johnson really helped spark that run. We are in the infant stages of the press and our offense so we are glad to have two good days of film.”
Woodrow Wilson opened the third quarter with back-to-back threes that cut the lead to two points, 31-29, but MHS wouldn’t surrender the lead. The Mohigans were the ones to end a quarter on the front foot this time, extending the lead back to multiple possessions with a small run just before the end of the third to lead 41-33.
The Mohigans flipped the switch in the fourth quarter and shut down the Flying Eagles defensively, allowing only eight points in the final frame, including just two points through the opening four minutes of the quarter. The effort helped MHS build the lead back to double-digits and take home the victory 55-41 over Woodrow Wilson.
The Mohigans will travel to Charleston for their next game as they visit the George Washington Patriots on Friday.
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 55, Woodrow Wilson 41
WW 12 11 10 8 – 41
MHS 10 21 10 14 – 55
MORGANTOWN — Young 8 2-2 21, Everett 4 2-3 12, Savage 3 1-1 7, Johnson 2 2-2 6, King 2 0-1 5, Frey 0 4-4 4.
WOODROW WILSON — Dillon 5 0-0 14, Hawthorne 3 2-2 8, Clary 3 0-0 8, King 3 0-0 6, Fitzwater 1 0-0 3, Walton 1 0-2 2.
3-Pt. Goals – Woodrow Wilson 7 (Dillon 4 Clary 2 Fitzwater 1); Morgantown 6 (Young 3 Everett 2 King 1).
