Trio-mendous win for UHS

First over Mohigans since ’00

BY JUSTIN JACKSON The Dominion Post

JUSTIN JACKSON is a sports reporter for The Dominion Post. He can be reached at sports@dominionpost.com 
    The Three Amigos made a cameo appearance Friday night at the UHS gymnasium, as Jedd Gyorko, L.C. Jefferson and Grant Meadows combined for 64 points to lead No. 7 University High past No. 3 Morgantown High, 79-61.
    A packed gymnasium that included celebrities Don Nehlen, John Beilein, Jeff Hostetler and Tony Caridi among hundreds of other fans who flowed out to the concession stand area saw -- and many of them stormed the court after -- the UHS trio led the Hawks (11-1) to a historic victory: their first win against MHS (11-2) since 2000.
    “The atmosphere was awesome,” said Gyorko, who scored a game-high 28 points. “This is just what we needed. We haven’t really been playing well the last few games, but tonight all the students and fans got us pumped up. I just hope it’s like this for the rest of our home games.”
    The victory also put both schools in a tie for first place in the North Central Athletic Conference standings, each with one conference loss.
    “Any time you beat Morgantown High, it’s a pleasant feeling,” said UHS coach Bruce Clinton, who racked up his first varsity victory against the Mohigans. “The one thing I told our guys is to keep it in perspective. This was just the first game of three against them and it’s the third game that counts.”
    It was Meadows who got the Hawks rolling early, scoring nine of their first 15 points and forcing MHS coach Tom Yester to call a timeout and MHS center Cameron Taylor to the bench, saddled with two quick fouls.
    “Any time you have a 6-foot-7 guy that can put the ball in the basket, you have to establish him early,” Clinton said. “Grant got off to a great start and then we got our shooters involved.”
    “It was huge getting Grant going,” Gyorko added. “He’s had it kind of tough the last couple of games, but we never lost faith in him. We know he can score and help this team out. He stepped up and played like a man tonight.”
    Meadows wouldn’t score again until the second half and finished with 18 points, but by then, Gyorko and Jefferson had taken over the game.
    “That’s the way you want to do it is go inside-out,” Yester said. “You have to give University a lot of credit, they played well, especially the big three. Grant got inside on us early and then Jedd and L.C. started to get hot. We tried some different looks, but it just wasn’t our night tonight.”
    Jefferson, who also finished with 18 points, hit a jumpshot and then started to drive to the basket, as Gyorko nailed some 3-point bombs. A Dan Romain offensive putback gave UHS a 24-10 lead early in the second quarter and the game would never be in doubt again.
    Not that the Mohigans didn’t give a solid effort playing only their second game without leading scorer Marlan Robinson, who was injured in an automobile accident earlier in the week.
    Jeff Lindsay gave a hard-nosed effort in scoring 22 for MHS, and Nathan Pearson came off the bench for Taylor to score 11 of his 13 points in the first half, but it wasn’t enough on this night.
    “The effort was there tonight from our kids,” Yester said. “Lindsay played inspired basketball and [John] Hatfield gave it everything he had. We broke down fundamentally a few times and I don’t think our defense was very good.
    “In the end, though, they just outplayed us, and that’s what happened.”

Todd Flint/The Dominion Post University High’s L.C. Jefferson backs in against Morgantown’s J.T. Lewis. Jefferson put up 18 points in the win. Lewis scored nine.


MORGANTOWN (11-2) Ryan 0 0-0 0, Karraker 1 1-2 3, Lewis 2 5-8 9, Rembert 1 0-0 2, Lindsay 8 5-7 22, Ramsey 1 0-0 2, Hatfield 2 0-0 5, Fletcher 1 0-2 2, Dunn 1 0-0 2, Pearson 4 2-3 13, Taylor 0 0-0 0, Holt 0 1-2 1. Totals 21 14-24 61. UNIVERSITY (11-1) Gyorko 9 6-11 28, Romain 2 1-2 5, Nehlen 2 0-2 4, Triplett 0 0-0 0, Jefferson 5 5-8 18, Michael 2 2-2 6, Collins 0 0-2 0, Meadows 7 4-4 18, Rowan 0 0-0 0, Payton 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 18-31 79. Morgantown 10 18 15 18 — 61 University 19 18 24 18 — 79 3-point goals—Morgantown 5 (Pearson 3, Hatfield 1, Lindsay 1), University 7 (Gyorko 4, Jefferson 3). Rebounds—Morgantown 37 (Lewis 8), University 38 (Nehlen 7). JVU—University 75 (Hewitt 27), Morgantown 72 (Ryan 18).