ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — It wasn’t the University High boys’ basketball team’s best game of the season, but the Hawks avenged an earlier loss to Wheeling Park on Saturday to win the OVAC 5A championship, 63-53.
“I wasn’t really happy with the way we played,” head coach Joe Schmidle said. “We didn’t play nearly as well as we did the previous four or five games. We’ll keep practicing and hope we improve every day. We just didn’t shoot the ball very well at all today.”
Neither Kaden Metheny or K.J. McClurg made a 3-pointer, the first time that’s happened this season. However, Schmidle was happy with how his bigs played.
Rodney Bucklew scored 10 points, while Ryan Niceler scored nine and Mike Maumbe scored six.
The Patriots stayed in the game by knocking down 3-pointers and scoring from the free-throw line. Six of their nine baskets in the second half were from beyond the arch.
They also got a lot of second-chance opportunities with offensive rebounds.
Despite the struggles from outside, Metheny and McClurg each scored 17 points to lead the team.
Defensively, the Hawks wanted to slow down Keon dre’ King, and they did just that, holding King to 10 points and Vargo to nine.
UHS (17-3) will play at Preston at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
