MORGANTOWN — Absolutely everything you need to know about the Morgantown boys’ basketball team – why it’s the three-time defending Class AAAA state champions – can be encapsulated into the final 15 seconds of the first half during Tuesday’s Region I co-final against Preston.
After Mohigans’ guard Morty Johnson scored in the paint, head coach Dave Tallman exhorted his team from the sideline, shouting, “Just one more stop! One more stop!”
The Mohigans were up 46-12 at the time. And they got the stop.
With their characteristically sensational man-to-man defense and routinely balanced scoring once again on full display in front of a packed home crowd, the Mohigans dispatched of the dark horse Knights, 81-38, to advance to Charleston in hopes of defending their crown once again.
The Mohigans earned the No. 2 seed at the state tournament and will play seventh-seeded Parkersburg South at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Preston (12-11), fresh off an epic 52-49 win against Wheeling Park, tried to slow the game down, but Morgantown’s athleticism and tenacity forced six straight turnovers. When the PHS defense sagged back into the paint, Waylon Colistra – on his way to a game high 20 points – stroked a pair of open threes.
When Max Frey hit a jumper and his own triple, MHS (19-2) suddenly had an 11-2 lead with 2:30 left.
Johnson then scored six straight points to close out the quarter with the Mohigans up 17-2. The Mohigans then tramped down on the accelerator in the second quarter, outscoring PHS 29-10 to forge an insurmountable 46-12 halftime bulge.
MHS turned in its 10th game of the season allowing less than 40 points. Along with Colistra’s 20, Frey’s 11, and Johnson’s 10, Demarcus Bandy scored 11 and stifled Knights’ leading scorer Easton Hayes, who hit for 20 against MHS previously this season, to just two points. Senior Kaden Bachtel paced the Knights with 11.
After the game, Preston head coach Bucky Forbes looked back on the year and saw nothing but positives.
“For us to end up in the regional finals is a real testament to how hard this team worked and how hard they played every minute of every game,” he smiled. “These guys improved so much during the course of the year, led by our seniors (Bachtel, Tristan Smith, and Aaron White), and I think we really got back to that tough, never-quit brand of basketball that Preston used to be known for.
“I thought we deserved to be here in the region finals. While we just came up short against an awesome defensive team – I don’t think there’s any question that Dave Tallman is hands down the best defensive coach in the state – I told the guys coming back that I am pumped up and tomorrow, we start getting ready for next year.”
For Tallman and his championship team, cutting down nets never gets old.
“We are just happy and thankful to get back to Charleston,” he said. “We never take this opportunity for granted. We have built a culture here where we truly take things one day, one game at a time, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially at this level. And congratulations to Preston, to Bucky and his staff – it’s great to see them improve so much this year, and to bring so much energy and buzz to their program.”
Asking for one more defensive effort – and getting it – is what Tallman is all about, and there is no questioning the results.
“That’s why we have built our program around our defense,” he explained, “because it takes significant effort, dedication, and commitment to play defense the way we do, and so we have complete buy-in to the mentality and the mind-set. We want to be hard to play against. We want to make you work hard and expend lots of energy every time down the floor to get a shot off, which is why we see teams with tired legs miss shots late in games. It’s what we do, and when we do it well, we are tough to beat.”
As he watched his seniors take their turn climbing the ladder to cut the net, Tallman added, “We’ll enjoy this moment, but then we’ll get back to work preparing for the state tournament.”
Box score
PRESTON (12-11)
Aidan Schmidl 2 4-4 9 Tristan Smith 3 1-2 9 Easton Hayes 1 0-2 2 Aaron White 1 0-0 2 Slaton Manko 2 0-0 5 Kaden Bachtel 4 3-5 11, Totals 13 8-13 38.
MORGANTOWN (19-2)
Max Frey 5 0-0 12 Demarcus Bandy 4 1-2 11 Cam Kellogg 0 2-3 2 Morty Johnson 4 2-2 10 Waylon Colistra 6 5-6 20 Brady Savage 1 0-0 2 Alex Himes 1 0-0 2 Blaze Colistra 2 0-1 4 Jaylen Deuesenberry 3 0-0 7 Collin Ridgeway 3 0-1 8 Kai Henkins 1 0-0 3, Totals 30 10-15 81.
3-pointers – PHS 4 (Schmidl, Smith 2, Manko), MHS 11 (Frey 2, Bandy 2, Henkins, W. Colistra 3, Ridgeway 2, Deusenberry).
