BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. — They say you throw out the records when you reach the postseason, but this was a little over the top. In yesterday afternoon’s Class A Region 2, Section 1 quarterfinal boys basketball game, No. 10 Clay-Battelle hosted the 1-21 Doddridge County Bulldogs.
Yes, that’s not a misprint. And yet, maybe those coaches know a little bit, because the Bulldogs didn’t play at all like a hopelessly over matched team. Though they eventually bowed to the taller, deeper Cee-Bees, 84-61, there was no doubt that the home team had to work for the win.
“We’ve been hurt all year,” Doddridge first-year coach Paul Burnside said, “and we could only go with about six players, but our kids — especially the seniors — never stopped battling and working. I’m proud of them, and even though we didn’t get a win today, I know we will start getting them soon.”
The Cee-Bees zipped out to a quick and easy 6-0 lead, but Doddridge found a way to hang around for most of the rest of the quarter, until Coltin Barr started to go off in the paint. Barr, who would finish his stellar afternoon with 30 points to lead all scorers, was dominant on the glass and was especially effective attacking the rim. The first quarter ended with a 25-14 C-B lead, and the combination of Barr putbacks and soft bank shots, plus balanced scoring from the deep Clay-Battelle bench, boosted the advantage to 47-25 at the break.
Even though the Cee-Bees opened the second half with a 7-0 run, the Bulldogs, bulled their way back into the game, at one point whittling the lead under 20 points at 60-41 late in the third. But a pair of Barr lay-ups built the bulge back up to 66-43 heading into the final quarter. Hayes went off for 13 in the fourth, but the final outcome was long known by then.
Bumgardner scored 18 points for the Bulldogs. Gage Statler hit for 13 and Mojo Chisler scored 12 for the victors.
Barr agreed that their record and the score didn’t reflect the quality of their opponent.
“They were pretty good, and they kept coming, kept hitting jumpers,” he said. “We know that it’s the post-season, so teams are gonna give everything they have. We thought early on that we might have a mismatch down low, and once we recognized it, the guys were looking for me, and they got it to me in good positions. We try to exploit favorable match-ups every game, and everybody did the job today.”
Clay-Battelle coach Josh Kisner indicated that, when it comes to the next game on the schedule, it’s really not about the guys in the other uniform.
“Sure, we look at film, and remember what the other team likes to do if we’ve seen them before,” he explained, “but for us, we have certain goals that we set before every game. If we meet those goals 95% of the time, we’re going to win that game.”
Clay-Battelle will host Trinity in the semifinal sectional game Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
DODDRIDGE COUNTY (1-22)
Holden Hayes 9 4-5 24 Hunter Jenkins 3 0-0 9 Isaac Ezell 1 0-0 3 JT Spencer 3 1-2 7 Noah Bumgardner 6 3-3 18 Totals 22 8-10 61
CLAY-BATTELLE (18-5)
Gage Statler 5 0-0 13 Chase Ammons 3 0-0 6 Levi Carrico 3 0-0 6 Seth Casino 3 2-2 9 Carson Shriver 2 0-0 4 Coltin Barr 13 4-6 30 Tanner Hennen 2 0-0 4 Morgan Chisler 5 0-0 12 Totals 36 6-8 84
DCHS 14 11 18 18 — 61
CBHS 25 22 19 18 — 84
3-pointers: DCHS 9 (Jenkins 3, Bumgardner 3, Hayes 2, Ezell); CBHS 6 (Statler 3, Chisler 2, Casino)
