Sports in The Dominion Post

This article appeared in the Dominion Post Newspaper on February 5, 2004.
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MHS pulls away from PHS in 4th

Knights miss chances to pull upset

BY JUSTIN JACKSON

The Dominion Post

KINGWOOD -- You know those days when you just want to stay in bed and not wake up?

The No. 2-ranked Morgantown High boys' basketball team seemed to have one of those on Wednesday.

The Mohigans played three quarters where they just hung around and continuously hit the snooze button, while Preston positioned itself for an upset.

The fourth quarter served as the final alarm, as Morgantown outscored the Knights, 20-4, for a 57-38 victory.

"You have to give Preston a lot of credit, they came in ready to play and we didn't tonight," MHS coach Tom Yester said. "Our guys must have been reading the paper or something."

Preston (8-7) began the game with a 10-2 lead, before the Mohigans made a mini-run to cut it to 12-6 at the end of the first quarter.

MHS (13-0) began the game without usual starters Tyler Benson (guard) and Ben Torsney (center). Yester said they had missed recent practices.

Both players entered the game with 4:11 left in the first and Benson hit two free throws to put an end to Preston's run of points.

Even as Morgantown began to cut into the lead, Preston had the tempo going its way, but couldn't capitalize on solid scoring opportunities.

"We must have missed about 10 shots from 3 feet in," PHS coach Barry Sanders said. "We should have had a 10-point lead in the first half. You don't know why, but sometimes those easy shots won't fall. I can't shoot it for them."

Morgantown wasn't faring much better.

"Our first possessions, we had eight turnovers," Yester said. "Tell me how you can get off to a good start doing that? That just killed us.

"The good news was we didn't panic. We fought back to get into the game. These kids have been around long enough to know that if you keep hanging around, good things will eventually start to happen."

The good things began to happen in the fourth quarter, as the Mohigans started to rebound and get out in transition.

Suddenly, the outside shots began to fall and Kameron Law put an exclamation point on the win with a slam dunk.

"We finally got the ball to the inside in the fourth quarter," Yester said. "We killed them on the inside I think tonight, which we should have. Sooner or later, our guys are going to realize if they want to win a game, they'll start throwing the ball inside."

Benson led the Mohigans with 19 points, while Torsney added 11 and Law 10.

Zach Metheny led the Knights with 13 points.

Junior varsity boys

Morgantown (11-0) used a balanced scoring effort to defeat Preston, 61-35. Jeff Lindsay scored 10 points for the Mohigans, while the Knights were led by Josh Adams' 10 points.

Middle school boys

* Steven Grose scored eight points to lead Central Preston past Washington Irving, 39-23.

* Zack King scored 16 points to lead South Preston (5-5) past Kasson, 37-27. Kasson's Larry Plum scored 17 points.

Morgantown 57

Preston 38

MORGANTOWN (13-0)

Benson 6 6-7 19, Law 4 2-2 10, Jones 1 0-0 2, Torsney 4 3-4 11, Oliver 1 2-2 4, Kerns 1 0-0 2, Hall 0 0-0 0, Carey 2 5-6 9, Robinson 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 18-21 57.

PRESTON (8-7)

Metheny 6 0-0 13, Walls 1 3-4 6, Boone 0 1-2 1, Martin 2 0-0 4, Waybright 1 0-0 3, Blake 0 2-2 2, Chambers 3 0-0 7, Greaser 1 0-1 2. Totals 14 6-9 38.

Morgantown 6 16 15 20 -- 57

Preston 12 8 14 4 -- 38

3-point goals--Morgantown 1 (Benson 1), Preston 4 (Metheny 1, Walls 1, Waybright 1, Chambers 1). Rebounds--Morgantown 29 (Kerns 6), Preston 27 (Walls, Boone 6).

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