Mohigans, Warriors roll
MHS shoots down defending champs

MORGANTOWN 64 LOGAN 48

BY ERIC HANLON
The Dominion Post

CHARLESTON — It may be an old cliche, but it’s true: To be the best, you have to beat the best.
That’s just what the Morgantown High boys’ basketball team has been doing of late.
During the sectional playoffs, the Mohigans beat the state’s No. 1-ranked team, Wheeling Park. Wednesday, second-seeded Morgantown took out the defending Class AAA state champion, seventh-seeded Logan, 64-48, in the opening round of the state tournament.
“We had to take Logan out. They weren’t going to just fall out themselves,” MHS head coach Tom Yester said. “I’ve seen the tapes of them against Wheeling Park (in the 2010 state title game) when they were down 10 or 11 with only a few minutes to go and they beat Wheeling Park. So we had to stay focused in this one.”
Morgantown advances to the state semifinals, at 9 p.m. Friday, against the winner of today’s South Charleston/ George Washington game.
Morgantown (23-3) earned its victory against Logan (15-11) with an all-around excellent shooting performance — 23-of-45 (51.1 percent) from the floor.
“I didn’t really expect them to have as high of a shooting percentage as they did,” Logan head coach Mark Hatcher said. “That kind of takes you out of a game.”
In particular, the Mohigans were good in the first half, scoring on 14 of 21 attempts (66.7 percent) while building a 33-22 lead.
It wasn’t exactly the kind of game Yester expected his team to play. While they typically dominate in the post with senior Taylor Price and sophomore Nathan Adrian, it was the Mohigans’ ability to spread the ball around and shoot from the perimeter that impressed early on.
“I thought we distributed the ball real well in the first half,” Yester said. “We didn’t get the ball inside enough to Taylor for me, but we survived by shooting some good shots.”
Price still managed a team-high 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Morgantown, which almost always struggles from 3-point range, was 3-of-4 from there in the first half.
“Mainly, we want to go inside, but if there is a 3 open, we’re going to take it,” Adrian said. He finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
While MHS was busy spreading the ball around and shooting the lights out, the Wildcats were just the opposite.
Logan finished 18-for-49 (36.7 percent) from the floor and made only 4 of 20 3-point attempts.
“We’re a defensive team and that’s what we rely on,” Price said. “We don’t have any superstars, but our chemistry, that’s what gets us through.”
Only three Wildcats scored more than two points. One was senior Paul Williamson, who scored a game-high 25 points. Another was senior Deyonte Coleman, who scored 12.
The rest of the Wildcats were basically nonfactors.
“We were able to somewhat contain Williamson and Coleman and tried to make their other players do something, but they weren’t able to capitalize,” Price said.
Logan did make a brief run in the third quarter, narrowing the MHS lead to 43-35, but a quick eight-second, seven-point swing resulting from a technical foul put an end to that.
The technical was called on Hatcher for throwing his necktie onto the court while arguing a foul call. That put Price on the free throw line following a disputed bucket.
Price made his free throw, sank two more foul shots for the technical, and MHS senior Alex Watson made a layup on the ensuing possession to make it a 50-35 game to start the fourth quarter.
“We clawed our way back in and I picked up a technical,” Hatcher said. “That probably wasn’t the smartest move I’ve made as a coach. I really put us in a hole going into the fourth quarter. For that, I apologize.”
LOGAN (15-11)
Greene 0-3 0-0 0, Coleman 5-13 2-3 12, Williamson 8-17 6-11 25, Browning 3-10 0-0 7, Miller 1-2 0-0 2, Dalton 0-1 0-0 0, Woody 1-3 0-3 2, Street 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Southers 0-0 0-0 0, Tomblin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-49 8-17 48.
MORGANTOWN (23-3)
Berryhill 2-5 3-5 7, Keffer 4-7 0-0 8, Drake 3-8 2-3 8, Adrian 4-7 2-2 11, Price 6-8 5-7 17, Lusk 2-3 1-2 7, Colasante 0-0 0-2 0, Watson 1-3 2-4 4, Marshall 0-0 0-0 0, Blemings 1-3 0-0 2, Agnew 0-0 0-0 0, Loudin 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-45 15-25 64.
Logan 10 12 13 13—48 Morgantown 15 18 17 14—64
3-point goals—Logan 4-20 (Williamson 3-7, Browning 1-6, Woody 0-1, Greene 0-2, Coleman 0-4), Morgantown 3-4 (Lusk 2-2, Adrian 1-1, Berryhill 0-1). Rebounds—Logan 28 (Coleman 8), Morgantown 38 (Price 10). Assists—Logan 4 (four players with 1), Morgantown 16 (Drake 7). Total fouls—17, Morgantown 15. Technical—Logan bench.


Bob Gay/The Dominion Post
The Mohigans’ Carlton Drake (right) drives on Steve Browning.

Bob Gay/The Dominion Post
Morgantown High’s Taylor Price (35) fights Logan’s Dustin Woody for a rebound, in Wednesday’s game.

TRINITY 76 MEADOW BRIDGE 31
First state win ever for the Trinity boys

BY ERIC HANLON
The Dominion Post

CHARLESTON — Wednesday was a historic night for the Trinity Christian School boys’ basketball team. The top-seeded Warriors won their first-ever Class A state playoff game, defeating eighthseeded Meadow Bridge, 76-31.
“It’s always nice to accomplish something that’s never been done before,” Trinity senior Chris Martinez said. “Now we just have to keep playing our best for as long as we’re down here.”
Trinity (24-2) advances to the semifinals, at 1 p.m. Friday, against Tucker County.
“We’re happy to be in Trinity’s history [books]. We’re pleased, but not satisfied,” senior A.J. Mayle said. “We’re happy with how we played; now we need to focus on the next task at hand.”
This group of Trinity seniors had lost twice in the opening round of the tournament, in 2008 and 2009.
“I’d be lying, speaking for myself, if I didn’t say there was a monkey on my back, and it feels good to get that out of the way,” Mayle said.
This time around, it wasn’t even close. Trinity held a 45-13 lead at halftime.
“The only thing you can say about a game like that is, if you could draw it up on paper before it was played, that’s exactly how you’d draw it up,” Trinity head coach Herman Pierson said.
The Warriors also nearly made state history.
Trinity’s 45-point win was only five points shy of the Class A record for margin of victory in a state tournament game, set by Madonna against Moorefield, in 2001.
To build that lead, the Warriors lived on the perimeter. Their 12 3-pointers were nearly a record — the most by any state tournament team, regardless of class, is 15, by Berkeley Springs, in 2005, against Westside.
“Maybe we should have fought through their screens a little better, but sometimes we were getting up on them and they were still making them,” Meadow Bridge head coach Mark Gladwell said. “That’s shooting pretty good.”
Mayle and Trinity sophomore Cody Triplett each hit four 3-pointers; as a team, the Warriors were 12-for-23 (52.2 percent) from behind the arc — 9-of-14 (64.3 percent) in the first half.
“That happens when you pass the ball around like we did tonight and have nobody within 10 feet of you,” Pierson said.
It was the second straight game in which Triplett was hot from 3-point range. He has made 11 of his past 12 attempts.
“More or less I’ve just been wide open because I’ve been playing with guys like A.J. and Chris,” Triplett said. “They suck in the other [defenders], so it’s easy to get open.”
As good as Trinity was offensively, it may have been even better on defense. Trinity scored 32 points off 19 turnovers and outrebounded the Wildcats, 40-24.
“We can always be beat, but if we compound our 3-point shooting with our defense, that just makes us even tougher,” Mayle said. “If we hold teams to 45 points or below, we feel we can score more than 45 points in a game.”
The Wildcats (17-6) had a number of lengthy scoring droughts, going stretches of six, seven and eight minutes without making a field goal.
“When you come out against a team like Trinity, you can’t afford to make any mistakes,” Gladwell said. “Against their press, we didn’t value the basketball and we threw it around a little too much.”
Mayle led the Warriors with a game-high 18 points, with five assists and two steals. Triplett added 12 points with three assists and three steals, while Martinez and fellow senior Ben Jordan each had 10 points and seven rebounds.
MEADOW BRIDGE (17-6)
Bennett 1-8 2-4 4, Pomeroy 1-6 0-0 2, Vandall 1-6 1-2 4, White 3-5 3-4 9, Gray 2-8 2-2 6, Crookshanks 0-1 0-0 0, Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Porter 1-5 0-0 2, Wingerd 1-2 1-2 4, Dixon 0-1 0-0 0, Crane 0-0 0-0 0, Redden 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-42 9-14 31.
TRINITY (24-2)
Rosler 3-4 0-0 7, Mayle 6-9 2-2 18, Selders 2-7 0-0 4, Martinez 5-11 0-0 10, Triplett 4-7 0-0 12, Jordan 4-8 0-0 10, Waugh 0-1 0-0 0, Retton 0-1 0-0 0, Wise 1-2 0-0 3, Jento 0-2 0-0 0, Ghiardi 1-1 2-2 4, McLaughlin 1-3 0-0 2, Prendergast 2-3 0-0 4, Hozempa 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 30-61 4-4 76.
Meadow Bridge 5 8 8 10—31 Trinity 21 24 14 17—76
3-point goals—Meadow Bridge 2-11 (Wingerd 1-1, Vandall 1-4, Bennett 0-1, Gray 0-1, Pomeroy 0-2, Porter 0-2), Trinity 12-23 (Mayle 4-5, Triplett 4-5, Jordan 2-3, Rosler 1-1, Wise 1-1, Waugh 0-1, Jento 0-1, McLaughlin 0-1, Prendergast 0-1, Selders 0-2, Martinez 0-2). Rebounds—Meadow Bridge 24 (Gray 6), Trinity 40 (Martinez, Jordan 7). Assists—Meadow Bridge 7 (Pomeroy 3), Trinity 22 (Rosler, Mayle 5). Total fouls—Meadow Bridge 3, Trinity 10.


Bob Gay/The Dominion Post
The Warriors’ Chris Mar tinez (22) launches himself for a dunk.

Bob Gay/The Dominion Post
Trinity Christian’s Cody Triplett (30) passes under pressure from the Meadow Bridge defense Wednesday.