MORGANTOWN 73 PRESTON 46

MHS off and running

Preston can’t keep pace with Mohigans’ offense

BY JUSTIN JACKSON The Dominion Post
JUSTIN JACKSON is a sports reporter for The Dominion Post. He can be reached at sports@dominionpost.com 
    Morgantown High unveiled its key to success Wednesday night in a 73-46 victory against Preston:
    Run, run, and — oh yeah — run some more.
    The fourth-ranked MHS boys’ basketball team may run more than the school’s football team that just won a state title.
    The Mohigans (1-0) used every opportunity possible to force an up-tempo game on offense while also showing the ability to put a lot of pressure on opposing guards to force turnovers and limit shots.
    “We do not want to be in a half-court game,” MHS coach Tom Yester said. “Not as much as we want to be in the full-court.”
    The tempo appeared to have the Knights (0-1) confused and playing from behind most of the game.
    “Well, we held them to 32 shots,” Yester said. “We’ll take that. Any time you can hold a team below 40 shots, that’s pretty good defense.
    “Then, we held them to 23 points in each half. If we can continue to do that to teams, I like our chances.”
    Marlan Robinson led the Mohigans with 13 points and looked strong driving to the basket, but he also showed the ability to keep his teammates involved in an offense that scored at least 15 points every quarter.
    “Marlan definitely came to play tonight,” Yester said.
    The Knights did have some stretches of success when they were able to penetrate the Mohigans’ defensive pressure and feed the ball down low to center Josh Adams, who finished with a game-high 17 points.
    But the stretches were too few and far between and sandwiched between 20 turnovers.
    “We had to make an adjustment to Adams,” Yester said. “He’s going to be a nice player for them, but I thought we did a little better job defending him in the second half. He didn’t hurt us in the second half like he did in the first half.”
    John Hatfield scored all 11 of his points in the first half and Elliot Law, Jared Ramsey, Nathan Pearson and Jamie Karraker all added eight points. In all, 10 of the 12 players on the MHS roster scored.
    “Our bench was productive and I think that was the difference in the game,” Yester said. “There’s things we need to work on. I think J.T. Lewis is only going to get better as the season goes and Marlan only took 10 shots. In other games, we’ll need for him to take more, but I did like the play of our guys coming off the bench. I like our depth.”
    Major Myers added eight points for the Knights.
    The Mohigans will get a good gauge on how their high-octane tempo will fare with other teams around the state when they travel to the Charleston Civic Center on Friday for a showdown with stateranked Parkersburg South.

MORGANTOWN (1-0) Karraker 3 0-0 8, Lewis 2 2-2 6, Law 4 0-2 8, Lindsay 2 0-0 5, Ramsey 3 0-0 8, Hatfield 3 4-4 11, Pearson 3 0-0 8, Robinson 6 1-2 13, Taylor 0 1-3 1, Holt 0 0-0 0, Fletcher 0 0-0 0, Ryan 2 0-0 5. Totals 28 8-13 73.

PRESTON (0-1)
    Larew 0 0-0 0, Wotring 1 0-0 3, Johnson 1 0-0 2, Mersing 0 0-0 0, Betler 0 4-4 4, Myers 2 3-4 8, Layton 0 0-0 0, Jennings 2 0-0 4, Dupont 1 0-2 2, Adams 7 3-4 17, Kelly 3 0-0 6. Totals 17 10-14 46. Preston 8 15 9 14 — 46 Morgantown 15 18 22 18 — 73
    3-pointgoals—Morgantown 9 (Pearson 2, Karraker 2, Ramsey 2, Lindsay 1, Hatfield 1, Ryan 1), Preston 2 (Wotring 1, Myers 1). Rebounds—Morgantown 17 (Lewis 7), Preston 15 (Jennings 5). Junior varsity—Morgantown 67 (Tyrell Rembert 17), Preston 41 (Rodney Swanson 11).

Mohigans roll with Robinson

Take-charge senior has 13 points, five assists

BY RYAN MCNEIL The Dominion Post
    The Morgantown High boys’ basketball team entered the 2005-’06 season ranked fourth in the state.
    With three starters gone from the 2004-’05 Mohigans team that went 20-6, MHS head coach Tom Yester needed his seniors to step up and lead the team, particularly forward Marlan Robinson.
    The 6-foot-5 Robinson didn’t disappoint in the Mohigans’ seasonopening 73-46 victory, against Preston, on Wednesday night. The senior led Morgantown with 13 points, eight in the first half.
    “Marlan came to play tonight,” Yester said. “He got us going early. That was big.”
    Robinson scored his 13 points on just 10 shots. Along with leading his team in scoring, the athletic forward also led Morgantown with five assists.
    “I tried to get my teammates involved,” he said. “The whole team played well tonight and pretty much everyone on our team scored.”
    Ten players cracked the scoring column for MHS and Robinson’s passing was one of the main reasons.
    Midway through the first quarter, Robinson rifled a baseball pass through traffic that landed in the hands of teammate Jared Ramsey, who laid it off the glass for an easy two points.
    A few minutes later, at the start of the second quarter, Robinson stole the ball and threw it up court to Elliot Law, who threw down a ferocious dunk.
    “When the other team throws different defenses at me, I have to adjust,” Robinson said. “Tonight, the defense was focusing on me, so I spread the ball around.”
    The fact Robinson only took 10 shots and still led the Mohigans is a testament to his ability.
    Yester said Robinson understands how to help his team on any given night. “As the season goes on, he is going to have to take more shots depending on the situation. But tonight he was patient and played a good game.”
    As a senior, Robinson understands he is expected to be a leader for the Mohigans along with his fellow senior starters, Jeff Lindsay and John Hatfield.
    “Yeah, I do know I have to be a leader,” he said. “We have a couple of leaders on this team. Me, Jeff, and John have been playing together for a while. We knew in our senior year it would be expected of us.”
    Morgantown has qualified for the state tournament the past four years. If the streak is to continue this season, Robinson will have to play a critical role for Yester’s team.
    “He can play defense on the other team’s best player, he can score,” Yester said. “Marlan can do a little bit of everything. He likes that role. Marlan is going to have to be a difference-maker for this team and make the tough buckets.”
RYAN MCNEIL is a sports reporter for The Dominion Post. He can be reached at sports@dominionpost.com

Bob Gay/The Dominion Post Morgantown’s John Hatfield splits the defense of Preston’s Trapper Jennings (left) and Josh Adams.