MORGANTOWN — Sharron Young knew he was one basket away, but he wasn’t going to rush things.
The Morgantown senior let the game come to him and put through a layup on a simple curl screen under the basket to score the 1,000th point in his career against Shady Spring Friday night inside the Rowdie Center.
“I knew if I let (being close) in my mind I was going to try and do too much,” Young said. “I just let myself know it’ll come, don’t rush anything and be patient.”
On a night went the reigning back-to-back Class AAAA champs faced their first test of the season, coach Dave Tallman thought Young’s basket in the third quarter was the best play the Mohigans (4-0) ran all game.
“I think that’s the only time we ran our offense properly the whole game,” Tallman said. “I mean that, it was bad, it was ugly. We played a lot of individual ball out there.”
Young finished with a game-high 20 points as Morgantown hung on late to beat Class AAA No. 2 Shady Spring (1-1) 56-47 to close out day one of the Little General Holiday Classic.
“I’m so proud of him, I love him to death,” Tallman said. “We’ve been with each other for four years here and he’s earned it. I’m glad it happened (Friday) in front of a great crowd. There’s nobody that works harder.”
“I just want to thank God for making that moment possible and my teammates and coaches for being able to accomplish that,” Young said. “I knew it was going to come sooner than later, so I wasn’t trying to rush anything. I was letting the game come to me.”
Young and the Mohigans began the game at a blistering pace, jumping out to a 17-2 lead over the Tigers in the first quarter. Young had a dozen first-half points as MHS went into the locker room leading 30-13 at halftime.
Morgantown hadn’t played a game that was within 60 points yet this season and looked like it would cruise to its fourth straight victory. Shady Spring had other plans in the second half, however.
“We came out with a lot of energy and played the way we’re supposed to play and executed our press (in the first half),” Tallman said. “In the second half, we just stopped trapping. Ronnie (Olson) knows what he’s doing, he made good coaching adjustments.”
The Tigers dictated play after halftime, slowing the game down and playing much better on both ends of the court. Shady Spring used a six-point run in the fourth to cut the lead to single digits, 46-35.
The Mohigans hung on late though, matching Shady point-for-point until the clock ran out.
“We were frontrunners tonight,” Tallman said. “We played really well out of the gate and then hit a little adversity and we kind of folded.”
The Tigers outscored MHS 34-26 in the second half. Although he was disappointed, Tallman said it was good for his team to play a close game.
“This was great, this is why we bring these teams in,” he said. “Our first three games were hard because you didn’t really see too much on film. This was a good battle and we’re going to learn a lot from this film.”
The Little General Holiday Classic continues today as the Mohigans will battle Woodrow Wilson at 3:30 p.m.
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 56, Shady Spring 47
SS 5 8 16 18 — 47
MHS 17 13 12 14 — 56
SHADY SPRING (1-1) — Williams 3 4-5 9; Maxwell 7 4-6 18; Davis 0 2-4 2; Olson 0 0-0 0; Bailey 4 2-3 11; Radford 0 0-0 0; McKoy 2 1-1 5; Johnston 0 0-0 0; Richmond 0 0-0 0.
MORGANTOWN (4-0) — Everett 5 1-3 12; King 5 2-3 12; Young 10 0-0 20; Shrewsberry 1 1-2 4; Savage 2 0-0 4; Colistra 0 1-2 1; Johnson 0 0-0 0; Hill 0 0-0 0; Frey 1 0-0 3.
3-Pt. Goals — Shady Spring 2 (Williams 1, Bailey 1). Morgantown 3 (Everett 1, Shrewsberry 1, Frey 1).
