MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown High girls’ basketball team will make its fourth straight appearance in the Class AAAA state championship game after an 85-52 victory over George Washington in the quarterfinals of the 2025 WVSSAC girls’ basketball tournament on Friday in Charleston.
MHS will battle top-seeded Spring Valley at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, aiming to capture a second title in four seasons.
The Mohigans led by ten at halftime but used a 47-24 advantage in the second half to pull away from the Patriots down the stretch.
Four players scored in double figures for the Mohigans, who earned their 20th win of the season.
Sophomore Kayli Kellogg led MHS with 22 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists. Seniors Lucie Hatcher and Sadaya Jones added 14 and 12, respectively.
Sophomore Brenna Nelson put in a stellar shift off the bench, contributing 19 points and four rebounds. She shot 8 of 11 from the field, including the only two triples MHS made in the contest.
“Our team just keeps showing resilience,” MHS head coach John Fowkes said. “George Washington was a hot team coming into this game, and I think a few people doubted us coming into it. These kids continue to battle and play with a chip on their shoulder, and their coach has one too.”
The game opened with a quick tempo as both teams pushed the ball offensively. George Washington took an early 3-2 lead on a triple by senior Nasiya Smith, but a jumper by Kayli Kellogg in response gave Morgantown the lead for good.
MHS freshman Sydney Deusenberry picked up two early fouls, making way for Nelson to enter the game.
The Patriots cut the lead to two at 13-11, but Nelson scored six quick points, and MHS ended the first with a 7-1 run to lead 20-11.
Nelson rolled along in the second with a jumper to open the frame as the MHS run continued to build between the quarters.
“When I came into the game, I knew we had to get something going,” Nelson said. “My teammates always pick me up and they were finding me for open looks after I got hot.”
Eventually capping at 17-0, the Mohigans led 30-11 midway through the second. However, the Patriots fired back with a run of their own, cutting the lead to as close as eight points.
MHS entered the locker room with a 38-28 lead.
A layup by GW sophomore Jeriyah Pryor cut the MHS lead to eight once again, 47-39, with 4:57 left in the third quarter, but the Patriots wouldn’t score for the remainder of the stanza.
MHS broke off its second significant scoring run of the contest with a 16-0 blitz to end the third.
Kellogg netted eight of her 22 points in the frame. She finished the contest 10 of 19 from the field and has combined to go 22 of 39 in the opening two games of the tournament with 54 points.
“Credit to their defense, they didn’t give any open looks tonight,” Kellogg said as she didn’t make a three-pointer in the game. “But when that’s not working, I know how I can impact the game in other ways, and doing what I can do to help my team is what I’ll do. Reading the defense, driving and kicking or finishing, whatever we need, I’ll do.”
Kellogg finished 10 of 15 inside the arc for MHS, which shot 59% from the field (36/61), including 19 of 29 in the second half.
“We’ve talked about it before; layups are important for us and our offense in transition. We work on that daily,” Fowkes said. “Honestly, we don’t even want to run half-court offense most of the time that’s just not us.”
MHS will meet Spring Valley in a rematch of the February 15 game, which the Timberwolves won 48-40 in Morgantown.
Spring Valley defeated No. 5 St. Albans 83-49 in the second AAAA semifinal.
MHS and Spring Valley have scored over 80 points in both games in the tournament so far.
“We just need to take care of the ball; when we do that, we can win any game,” Fowkes said of the championship game against Spring Valley. “We only had nine turnovers against a scrappy GW team but if we can take care of and share the ball, we have a great chance.”
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 85, George Washington 52
GW 11 17 11 13 – 52
MHS 20 18 25 22 – 85
George Washington – Pryor 9 3-5 28 Smith 4 2-2 13 Breckenridge 2 1-2 5 Hoston 1 0-0 3 Sosebee 1 0-2 3
Morgantown – Kellogg 10 2-4 22 Nelson 8 1-2 19 Jones 5 2-2 12 Hatcher 7 0-1 14 Deusenberry 4 0-0 8 DeVries 1 4-4 6 Messerly 0 2-2 2 Balderson 1 0-0 2
3pt goals made – George Washington 8 (Smith 3 Pryor 3 Hoston 1 Sosebee 1); Morgantown 2 (Nelson 2).
