MORGANTOWN – When you’re the top seed, hosting a regional final and ranked No. 2 in the state, you certainly have earned the right to a certain measure of confidence.
That was the position the Morgantown High girls’ basketball team was in Tuesday night. With a trip to the state tournament on the line, however, underdog John Marshall kept things interesting before the Mohigans prevailed 64-49.
MHS earned the No. 2 seed at the state tournament with the win. The Mohigans will play No. 7 seed Washington (18-4) at 1 p.m. on March 12.
MHS used a recipe of solid guard play, solid rebounding and solid defense, with the trio of Sadaya Jones, Kayli Kellogg and Lucie Hatcher putting all three to good use.
In the end, they were able to outlast the Monarchs’ one-two punch of Rilee Storm and Kaylee White to survive and advance.
The Mohigans (18-3) employed their full-court press defense on inbound plays to begin the game, and it forced enough turnovers to overcome some poor shooting and led to a quick 9-4 lead. But John Marshall (15-9) got going, as White got hot from long distance, nailing a pair of 3-pointers and 10 points in the quarter to stake the Monarchs to a surprising 14-13 advantage.
To start the second quarter, Mohigans coach John Fowkes then placed his shutdown defender, freshman Sydney Deusenberry, on White, and implored his defense to ramp up their intensity, and it completely changed the game. Morgantown ran out on a 16-2 run to take a 13-point lead with two minutes left in the half. But more missed lay-ups and a mini-run from the scrappy Storm closed the gap to single-digits at the break, 29-21.
More Mohigans’ defensive pressure to begin the second half forced more Monarchs turnovers, which allowed MHS to rebuild their 13-point bulge at the 5:30 mark.
That’s when Storm took her turn to light it up from beyond the arc, as she hit three huge triples to help whittle the lead down to just seven points at 43-36 with 1:30 to play in the third.
Kellogg responded with a 3-pointer, which was followed by three defensive strips from the MHS guards. That led to a flurry of points late and the largest lead of the night for MHS, 50-36.
Any hopes for one final push from John Marshall were crushed when Jones, struggling with a sore knee and shooting struggles in the paint, scored in the lane, swished a corner 3-pointer and popped in two more key lay-ins early in the final frame. The Monarchs never threatened again, and the Mohigans had punched their ticket to dance Charleston.
After the game, Fowkes heaped praise on John Marshall, starting with their coach, Brock Melko.
“They came here to win,” he said, “and I am so impressed with the job coach Melko has done with his team. They’ve improved so much since we last saw them, and anytime you have two guards playing and shooting as well as White and Storm did tonight, that will really challenge you defensively. But I also love the way our girls responded, especially in the second quarter. They really got after them, and Sydney did a beautiful job in locking down White after that first quarter. Our defensive tenacity (MHS won the turnover battle decisively, 20-6) made all the difference tonight, even though we didn’t convert in transition as well as we usually do.”
When asked about her early offensive struggles – just two first-half points and only six heading into the fourth quarter – Jones explained her turnaround with a senior’s wisdom.
“I think I was trying to do a little too much,” she smiled, “so I tried to relax and let the game come to me. Basketball is a game of runs, so I figured it would eventually be my time to help us get on that last big run to put it away. And the way we played defense, locking down the other team, crashing the defensive glass, playing aggressive and hard – that’s what we will need to do at States to be successful. It will be my third trip, and I’ve been a runner-up twice now (Jones played for Fairmont Senior when Morgantown won it all in 2023), so I want to bring the trophy back to Morgantown this year (along with fellow seniors Skyler Davis, Liz Alsop, Sydney Porter, and Lucie Hatcher).”
Fowkes concurred whole-heartedly with his gutsy leader.
“We are going down there to win the whole thing,” he stated with matter-of-fact confidence. “It’s where we’ve wanted to go the entire season. We’ve gotten really great guard play from Kayli, we can hurt you inside with our length, and defensively we feel we can troll the game when we’re playing the way we want to. It’s up to us to bring our best game to the gym every day, and if we do that, I think we have everything we need to get the job done.”
Box score
JOHN MARSHALL (15-9)
Kalyn Reese 2 2-4 6 Kaylee White 8 0-0 19 Rilee Storm 6 2-2 18 Paislee Babiczuk 3 0-0 6 Totals 19 4-6 49.
MORGANTOWN (18-3)
Sydney Deusenberry 3 3-5 9 Sydney Porter 1 0-2 2 Carper Messerly 1 0-0 3 Lucie Hatcher 5 0-0 10 Sadaya Jones 6 2-2 15 Kayli Kellogg 5 6-6 18 Brenna Nelson 3 0-0 7 Totals 24 11-15 64.
3-pointers – JM 7 (Storm 4, White 3), MHS 5 (Messerly, Kellogg 2, Jones, Nelson)
