UNIVERSITY 76 MORGANTOWN 71
Curl a pearl for Hawks in 2OTs
UHS seniors win in archrival’s gym for the first time

BY KRISTIN KURELIC
The Dominion Post

The ear-to-ear grin that Curl Dixon exchanged with University High head coach Paul Ingle immediately after he banked a 3 in the crosstown rivalry game was only partially because he had just banked a 3.
“I’m lucky,” he said, still smiling sheepishly after Saturday night’s game.
It had a decent amount to do with the fact that the trey came at the beginning of the second overtime, giving the Hawks a 64-61 lead against Morgantown High.
But mostly, it was because at that moment, Dixon had an inkling.
“This is going to be our game. Just everything went our way,” he said, smiling wider than he had all night. “I smiled at him and let him know we were going to win.”
After four quarters and two overtimes with 11 lead changes, seven ties, 20 three-point field goals and seven scorers in doublefigures, the Hawks stole away a 76-71 victory from No. 2 Morgantown High, in the MHS Rowdy Center.
The UHS students chanted “It’s all about the U!” in an overflowing gymnasium, and stormed the court after the first road victory in the rivalry for the 2013 UHS seniors and for Ingle, in his fourth season at UHS.
“This is definitely a big ‘W.’ We played great as a team and if we play like that the rest of the season, we will be a hard team to beat,” Dixon said. “A good win. Loooove the game of basketball. Words can’t describe how I feel right now.”
Dixon took over for nine of his 16 points in the two overtimes, and was one of four Hawks in double figures. Travis Tomer led UHS with 18 points, Tevin Dixon netted 15 and Deion Cunningham added 14.
“I’m sure there are, but there are not too many places that are tougher to come in and win at,” Ingle said. “They’ve got a really, really good ball team. Their crowd is great and they fill this place. I told my kids in the locker room before this game that they will always remember tonight and to make it memorable. To go out there and play loose, don’t be tight, and a little bit at the beginning maybe, but after that they did.”
MHS took a 15-5 lead and UHS clawed its way back in, down, 17-11, after the first quarter. In the second quarter, Ingle switched his team into a 3-2 zone defense and the Mohigans struggled shooting the rest of the night.
“I was really proud of our defense,” Ingle said. “I thought we rebounded with them. Didn’t give up too many offensive rebounds, so that was huge.”
MHS managed only 11 offensive rebounds, and Nathan Adrian had nine of them. Adrian grabbed 19 rebounds and five steals, and led all scorers with 26 points. Dean Marshall added 23 and Mark Johnson 11 for MHS, but it wasn’t enough.
MHS starting forward Austin Agnew came out of the game early in the second quarter and did not return. He reinjured the knee he sprained in MHS’s game against Martinsburg.
“We had some guys that usually make some shots that didn’t make any. They beat us on the boards,” MHS coach Tom Yester said. “I thought we hung in there and played defense and got to the two overtimes and both teams had a little good luck and we didn’t have enough at the end. Give them credit — Dixon and Tomer — those are the guys and they played well.”
The game was knotted at 29 at halftime and, after a wild second half, MHS’s Daniel Eby tied things at 54. UHS’s Adam Meadows took a charge at the buzzer to save a potential MHS victory and send the game to overtime.
Adrian’s 3 with 18 seconds to play in the first overtime forced another, with the score at 61 all. Tevin Dixon, Curl Dixon and Cunningham led the Hawks on a 7-0 run as the second overtime opened, and MHS was forced to foul down the stretch.
“Dean Marshall really kept us in there, of course with Nathan, and they played well,” Yester said, “but the rest of their group beat the rest of our group. A long, hard, tough game and we gotta get over it and play on Monday.”
UHS hosts Fort Hill (Cumberland, Md.) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
MHS hosts Preston at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
UNIVERSITY (9-5)
C. Dixon 6 4-6 16, Cunningham 6 2-3 14, Meadows 1 1-2 3, Tomer 6 3-4 18, Lewis 1 0-0 2, Shade 1 1-2 3, T. Dixon 5 5 2-5 15, Leftridge 1 0-0 2, Gutmann 0 0-0 0, Bodkin 1 0-0 3. Totals 28 13-22 76.
MORGANTOWN (11-2)
Adrian 11 1-2 26, Agnew 1 0-2 2, Marshall 8 4-6 23, Colasante 1 0-0 3, Eby 2 0-0 4, Johnson 3 2-2 11, Core 0 0-0 0, Selby 0 0-0 0, Carden 0 2-2 2. Totals 26 9-14 71.
University 11 18 20 5 7 15 — 76
Morgantown 17 12 14 11 7 10 — 71
3-point goals: University 10 (Tomer 3, T. Dixon 3, C. Dixon 2, Shade, Bodkin). Morgantown 10 (Adrian 3, Marshall 3, Johnson 3, Colasante).

Jason DeProspero/The Dominion Post
UHS’s Deion Cunningham (left), Dakota Bodkin, Adam Meadows and Tevin Dixon head off the court during a timeout after pulling ahead of Morgantown in the second OT Saturday.