MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High boys’basketball team found a breath of energy.
“I feel like we’re trying harder. We’re passing the ball way more around the key, making harder cuts, and trying to score more. There’s just more effort,” guard Alex Rudy said.
The No. 10 Mohigans took the court with vigor Wednesday night as the hosted Buckhannon-Upshur in the Class AAA Region I, Section 2 semifinals. Three players tallied double digits and 14 contributed to the scoreboard as Morgantown cruised past the Buccaneers 72-47. With the win, the Mohigans advance to the Section 2 final Friday night against crosstown rival No. 2 University.
“I was real happy. I thought we clicked offensively really well. We’ve seen glimpses of it — we had great practices this week — and down the stretch, I think we’re playing better,” coach Dave Tallman said.
“We finally put 32 minutes of basketball together and we played 14 guys tonight, so we should be fresh and ready to go for Friday.”
Morgantown jumped out to a 21-point lead early in the first half and never looked back, efficiently controlling the pace of the game and smothering the Buccaneers offense.
“We shared the ball real well, we were real patient with the ball, and we found the open guys,” Tallman said. “We just kind of slowed down a little bit and let the game come to us.”
The win is the third consecutive for the team — it’s now won five of its past eight games following a mid-season slump which saw them go 3-4 in January.
“You definitely want to struggle during the season and not during the playoffs. Getting it done early helps you in the long run — our struggles just helped us learn to move the ball around, score faster, and play better pressure defense,” center Nick Malone said.
Rudy paced Morgantown with 14 points against the Buccaneers, while Malone added 11 and Cam Selders notched 10.
Morgantown will look for a continuation of Wednesday night’s effort against the Hawks on Friday, as it looks to redeem a pair of regular season losses and capture their first sectional crown since 2016.
“We just have to play ball and do what we did tonight,” Rudy said.
“We just have to pass the ball and play hard on offense and run our defense.”