Anderson and MHS nip Knights again
Morgantown owns 1st place in the NCAC
BY ERIC HANLON The Dominon Post

The Preston High boys’ basketball team probably hopes it never has to see Morgantown senior Tyler Anderson ever again.
In the past two games, Anderson has put up 28 points against the Knights, delivering them back-toback losses, including a 44-41 defeat at the MHS gym Tuesday night.
“Playing Preston is like playing a second rival behind University,” Anderson said. “They’ve had a pretty good team for the last five or six years now. So, it’s fun to play Preston.”
Saturday, when the two teams met, Anderson hit a layup at the buzzer to beat Preston, in Kingwood. Tuesday, Anderson followed up that performance by scoring 10 of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter to rally the Mohigans from a six-point deficit.
“Tyler could do that against anybody,” MHS head coach Tom Yester said. “He is a superior athlete.”
At 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, Anderson was just too much for the much smaller Knights.
“First of all, they’re bigger and stronger than us,” PHS junior T.J. Thompson said. “And that in itself was hard on us.”
But for the majority of the game, the Knights actually had Anderson bottled up, as he scored only three points in the second and third quarters. They just couldn’t contain him all game.
“There in the [second and third], we kept making him go to his left and he can’t score that way,” PHS head coach Barry Sanders said. “But then they stopped doing what I told them and he got away. You just can’t let him go to his power hand.”
Also making a huge contribution was MHS junior Ryan Parsons, who hit two 3-point shots at the buzzer, in both the second and third quarters, to keep MHS in it.
“I thought we did a good job at the end of most every quarter, and that’s important,” Yester said. “In both cases, we were down by five or six and there we want Parsons to take the outside shot.”
Parsons finished with 11 points, but it was clear to Anderson which points were the most important.
“Those were some clutch shots,” Anderson said of Parsons’ buzzerbeaters. “We ran plays to set him up with 3s and he made them. That was a big momentum-changer. If he didn’t make it, we would go in the half down by six, and by five in the fourth, and it would’ve been a lot harder to come back.”
The loss was the third straight for the Knights, with all three coming by a total of eight points.
“We’ll get better,” Sanders said. “We’re a young team. Most of the time We had three sophomores out there. I’m proud of them. They did a good job, and I know they will continue to improve.”
Not to mention, before the losing streak the Knights were in first place in the NCAC. Now, with backto-back losses to the Mohigans, Morgantown takes over that top spot.
“There are still so many games left in the conference, but Preston had no losses before, so this is nice,” Yester said. “It definitely puts us in the driver’s seat. Now we need to see if we can handle the wheel.”
Quietly having a big game for MHS was junior Sam Runner, who recorded a double-double, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The Knights were led by Thompson, who, similarly to Anderson, came on late, scoring 10 of his gamehigh 21 points in the fourth quarter.
The Morgantown JVs (10-0) won, 76-38. Nathan Colombo led MHS with 19 points, followed by Michael Keffer (14), Taylor Price (11) and Evan Berryhill (11). Leading Preston were Andrew Boggs with, 19 and Demetrious Bishoff with 10.
PRESTON (8-5, 6-2 NCAC)
T.J. Thompson 6 5-8 21, C. Thompson 0 2-2 2, Murray, 0 2-2 2, Fike 4 0-0 9, Crogan 2 0-0 4, Wagner 1 1-2 3, Contic 0 0-0 0, Goff 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 10-14 41.
MORGANTOWN (8-4, 7-1)
Anderson 6 5-8 17, Parsons 4 1-2 11, Runner 4 2-4 10, Petitte 0 3-6 6, Jackson 0 0-0 0, Barnett 0 0-0 0, Caridi 0 1-2 1, Simmons 0 0-2 0, Wilson 1 0-1 2, Meador 0 0-0 0.
Preston 12 9 8 12 — 41 Morgantown 10 9 8 17 — 44
3-point goals: Preston 5 (T.J. Thompson 4, Fike). Morgantown 2 (Parsons 2).

Bob Gay/The Dominion Post Morgantown High’s Tyler Anderson sinks a layup against the defense of Preston’s Shayne Murray, for two of his 17 points Tuesday.