MORGANTOWN – With less than twelve hours until March, the University High boys basketball welcomed the top-ranked team in Class AAAA to Baker’s Ridge, George Washington.
Winners of their last five games, the Hawks battled the visiting Patriots hard for 3 and a half quarters, but went cold offensively down the stretch as GW headed back to Charleston with a 67-51 victory.
George Washington senior Noah Lewis scored a game-high 32 points on 13 made field goals, adding eight rebounds. Fellow senior Tyler Maddox contributed 10 for the Patriots (18-2), who saw every player register points.
UHS (15-5) was led by junior Luke Byrer with 24 points on 8 of 14 shooting. Senior Glenn Brown added 11 for the Hawks.
“We had a feeling (Noah) Lewis would be the one to take over when they needed him to,” UHS head coach Joe Schmidle said. “When things aren’t going their way, that’s who they turn to. We had a play on the sideline where Jack Byrer ran into their bench trying to save the ball from going out, and it looked like he was pushed and his toe was just over the line when he touched the ball. If he saves that ball, we have a run-out dunk for the lead.”
The play Schimdle referenced came midway through the third quarter with the Hawks trailing 37-36.
The Patriots responded by extending the lead to eight before the end of the third.
Lewis opened the fourth with a triple and a dunk on a fastbreak for George Washington, swelling the lead to 13, 54-41.
The Hawks responded with an 8-0 run, cutting the lead to five with four minutes to play, but scored only two points for the remainder of the contest.
“We also just couldn’t buy a bucket in the second half,” Schmidle said. “We missed some uncharacteristic layups and only made one three-pointer in the second half. That being said, I thought our kids played really hard today. I’m proud of how they battled. We just have to put the ball in the basket more and be patient.”
Originally scheduled for January, Schmidle says he knows how important it is to his team to have played this game, even with the result.
“We may have lost today, but playing that game makes us better,” he said. “It gives us a great opportunity to see where we are and where we need to get to before the postseason. We even added a game next week against (No. 3) Spring Mills. If we continue to work as hard as we have in practice, who knows what can happen if you make it to Charleston.”
BOX SCORE
George Washington 67, University 51
GW 22 12 13 20 – 67
UHS 14 14 11 12 – 51
George Washington (18-2) – Lewis 13 5-9 32 Maddox 3 2-2 10 Welch 3 0-0 7 Browning 3 0-0 7 Sprouse 1 1-2 4 Kelley 1 1-2 3 Mullen 0 2-2 2 Clark 1 0-0 2 TOTALS 26 11-17 67
University (15-5) – L. Byrer 8 6-9 24 Brown 4 2-6 11 Lewis 2 4-6 8 Karpinski 0 4-4 4 Barnes 1 0-0 3 J. Byrer 0 1-2 1 TOTALS 15 16-27 51
3pt goals made: George Washington 6 (Maddox 2 Lewis 1 Sprouse 1 Browning 1 Welch 1); University 4 (L. Byrer 2 Brown 1 Barnes 1).
