Sports in The Dominion Post

This article appeared in the Dominion Post Newspaper on December 23, 2003.
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MHS's Yester makes his point, 3 is better than 2

Ian Benson/The Dominion Post

East Fairmont's Josh Wray corners MHS's Ben Torsney during Monday night's encounter.

BY JUSTIN JACKSON

The Dominion Post

FAIRMONT -- Some high school coaches love the 3-point shot, some don't.

You can put Morgantown High boys' basketball coach Tom Yester under the "loves" category.

"I want this team to shoot all the 3-pointers they can get," Yester said. "Especially in a game like this when the team really packs down the zone inside. I want our shooters to be able to recognize that and hopefully light it up."

The No. 4-ranked Mohigans lit it up Monday night, in a 66-39 victory over East Fairmont.

Chris Carey came out and hit the first three 3-pointers he attempted and then hit three more over the course of the game to score 23 points to lead the way.

"Chris got hot and our guys kept giving him the ball," Yester said. "That's what I want. Some of our other guys weren't hitting well from the outside, not like they usually do, so I was thankful Chris was on his game tonight."

In their first two games, the Mohigans (2-0) have hit 19 3-pointers. On Monday, Morgantown went 10 of 22 from 3-point range.

"That's a good percentage," Yester said. "We have some shooters. Tyler (Benson) can light it up, but he was off some tonight. Benson still scored 12, which most people would love to have, but that's an off night for him."

Carey was hot then Benson added a 3-pointer. Before you knew it, MHS had jumped out to an early 15-4 advantage.

"We got the early lead and I think that kind of set the tone," Yester said. "That lead will get teams out of their game. If you can get a team to try and play catch-up and start playing at a faster pace, that's what we want to do.

"Now, tonight, I was a little disappointed that we didn't connect more on some fast break opportunities, but we had them and that's important to us. We just have to learn to finish better."

Carey finished with 14 of his 23 in the first half. Benson, who was the area's leading 3-point shooter last year, finished with 12 and Kameron Law scored 13 and added nine rebounds.

The second half was about defense, as the Mohigans held East Fairmont (0-2) to just 15 points in the second half.

"When you do that, you must be doing something right," Yester said. "We didn't play defense very well in the first half. We're still looking to get that game where everything clicks all together."

MORGANTOWN 66

EAST FAIRMONT 39

MORGANTOWN (2-0)

Benson 5 0-2 12, Law 4 4-5 13, Jones 1 0-2 2, Holt 2 0-0 4, Torsney 0 0-2 0, Oliver 1 0-0 2, Kerns 1 0-0 3, Hall 0 0-0 0, Carey 8 2-2 23, Dunn 1 0-1 2, Straface 0 0-0 0, Robinson 2 0-0 5. Totals 25 6-14 66.

EAST FAIRMONT (0-2)

Jo. Wray 5 2-2 12, Nunan 1 1-2 4, Porter 3 0-0 7, Shaffer 1 0-0 2, Hawkins 1 0-0 2, Moore 4 0-2 8, Slusser 2 0-0 4, Talerico 0 0-0 0, Ja. Wray 0 0-0 0, Price 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 3-6 39.

Morgantown 19 15 17 15 -- 66

East Fairmont 10 14 6 9 -- 39

3-pointers--Morgantown 10 (Carey 5, Benson 2, Law 1, Kerns 1, Robinson 1), East Fairmont 2 (Nunan 1, Porter 1). Rebounds--Morgantown 39 (Law 9), East Fairmont 34 (Jo. Wray 9).

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