Mohigans eke out a 20-point victory
Put away stubborn E. Fairmont in 4th
PREPROUNDUP

Bob Gay/The Dominion Post

Morgantown High's Seth Fogarty goes up for a shot against East Fairmont, on Wednesday.

BY MICHAEL CASAZZA

The Dominion Post

This one, after three quarters, had all the makings of a thriller.

But as the fourth quarter began Wednesday, East Fairmont forgot how to score while Morgantown did little wrong and ran away with a 59-39 victory.

"This was not a blowout; 20 points is very deceiving," Morgantown coach Tom Yester said. "It was very unusual. You look at East Fairmont and they usually score in the mid- to upper-60s, if not 70s. So I was happy with the defensive effort."

MHS led, 42-37, after a third quarter that saw the Bees finally erase a 10-point lead the Mohigans built and wasted during a sloppy first half.

But when the fourth began, East Fairmont (1-1, 1-1 NCAC) missed its first 10 shots on the way to a 1-for-12 quarter and didn't score until Tyler DeVault hit a jumper with 1:29 to play. MHS was ahead, 53-39, by then, thanks to a 17-0 run that saw the Mohigans use a running game that would make football coach Glen McNew jealous.

"They're a tough team, but I think they got a little tired out there," said Morgantown's Ronnie Shaver, who led all scorers with 15 points. "The first half they played with us and it was pretty tough, but we started running on them more in the second half. And that's the way we want to play our game."

Bobby Prim and Justin Vidovich started the fourth with a nice two-man game as Prim fed Vidovich for a wide open 3-pointer. Seconds later, Vidovich rebounded an East Fairmont miss and fired upcourt to a streaking Prim, who made an easy layup for a 10-point cushion.

"We had a lot of good rebounding and me and Vidovich can break out sometimes and get easy points," Prim said. "That gets the rest of the team going, too."

It did Wednesday. After Shaver made a left-handed layup that seemed to deflate the Bees, Nick Hedges (game-high 10 rebounds) began crashing the boards, Seth Fogarty started getting open and bench players such as Matt Simpson and Geremy Rodamer were playing like starters. In all, the running, gunning Mohigans were too much for the Bees to cope with.

"Tempo is very important in any game, and this team needs to be up-tempo as much as it can," Yester said. "People are picking up other people and we are always getting something from someone."

Morgantown (3-0, 2-0) jumped to a 10-point first quarter lead, but had its own struggles in the second and went into the lockers having hit 11 of 33 shots. The lead had beem trimmed to three points, though the Bees weren't playing much better.

"It was sloppy in the first half," Shaver said. "But we got our heads straight and followed the game plan. We have to trust the coaches and the other players out there."

In another game:

* Matt Lambert scored 13 of his team-high 24 points in the fourth quarter as North Marion broke open a close game and beat Preston, 72-59, in Kingwood.

North Marion and Preston (0-3) were tied at 46 entering the final quarter, but Lambert ended up equalling the Knights' output in the period. Preston scored 26 points in the second half, while the Huskies got 26 in the final quarter.

"They got hot and we didn't do anything about it," Preston head coach Barry Sanders said.

Harry Hayes led all scorers with 26 points and hit seven of Preston's 10 3-pointers. Thomas Hooton added 13 and Chris Hartley 11 for the Knights.

MORGANTOWN 59, EAST FAIRMONT 39

EAST FAIRMONT (1-1, 1-1 NCAC)

Ralphsnyder 4 0-0 11, Wyant 2 4-8 8, DeVault 2 1-4 5, Conner 2 1-2 5, Wray 1 0-0 2, Slaman 2 0-0 4, Stephens 2 0-0 4, Hoffman 0 0-0 0, Sachetti 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 6-14 39.

MORGANTOWN (3-0, 2-0 NCAC

Hedges 1 2-4 4, Prim 5 0-0 10, Shaver 7 0-0 15, Vidovich 3 2-6 9, Fogarty 4 1-2 9, Rodamer 3 2-2 8, Simpson 1 1-2 3, Dalton 0 1-2 1, Murray 0 0-0 0, Williams 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 9-18 59.

East Fairmont 7 16 14 2 -- 39

Morgantown 17 9 16 17 -- 59

3-point goals--East Fairmont 3 (Ralphsnyder 3); Morgantown 2 (Vidovich, Shaver).

PRESTON 72, PRESTON 59

NORTH MARION (72)

Manchin 2 5-6 9, Martin 3 1-2 9, Vernon 3 0-0 6, Lambert 9 3-5 24, Sell 5 1-2 12, Jarman 3 3-4 9, Swiger 1 0-0 3. Totals 26 13-19 72.

PRESTON (59)

Hooton 5 1-1 13, Hartley 4 2-2 11, Hayes 9 1-1 26, White 0 0-0 0, Born 2 3-4 7, Adams 0 0-2 0, Westbrook 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 7-10 59.

North Marion 15 15 16 26 -- 72

Preston 19 14 13 13 -- 59

3-point goals--North Marion 7 (Lambert 3, Martin 2, Sell, Swiger), Preston 10 (Hayes 7, Hooton 2, Hartley).

Middle school boys

* Three players combined for all but three of Trinity's points in a 53-46 win over Clay-Battelle. Grant Neely netted 21, Justin Bolen 17 and Robert Audia 12 for Trinity (5-1).

* Balanced scoring from Jared Ramsey (13 points) and Jordan Pinto and Craig McIntosh (12 each) led Suncrest's eighth-grade team (4-0) to a 47-38 win over Miller. Junius Lewis scored 18 points and Charlie Russell 12 as Suncrest (4-0) won the seventh-grade game, 38-35.

Middle school girls

* Allene Walker tallied 21 points to offset 21 by East Fairmont's Kate Terlosky and pace Cheat Lake's eighth-grade team (4-0) to a 44-34 victory. The seventh-grade team (1-3) got eight points from Amy Chrzaszcz but lost, 35-18, to East Fairmont, which was led by Alex Morris's 10 points.

* South's eighth-graders stayed perfect (6-0) and routed Miller, 60-19, with Keri Pryor pouring in 24 points and Brittney Frum adding 18. Brittany Thayer was all the South seventh-graders (4-0) needed in beating Miller, 46-11. Thayer led all scorers with 16 points and teammate Jessica Clutter added eight. Miller was led by Ryann Moore's seven points.