MORGANTOWN – For the second consecutive season, both the Morgantown and University High School boys basketball teams will make the trip south on I-79 to the capitol city for the state tournament.
The Mohigans and Hawks each defended home court on Wednesday night in the co-finals of the Class AAAA North Region Tournament.
Four-seed University High used a solid all-around effort to advance over No. 5 Musselman 65-47 on Baker’s Ridge, led by junior Luke Byrer with a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds.
After the game was tied at seven in the opening quarter between the Hawks and Applemen, UHS exploded for a 15-2, allowing only four points to the visitors in the second frame.
Hawks head coach Joe Schmidle said defense and rebounding were the keys to the victory.
“That’s what we had written on the board in the locker room, and our kids were locked in today,” Schmidle said. “Probably 80% of our practices were only working on defense and preparing for this game. We weren’t giving them many clean looks, and I thought that made a difference in the game.”
University was voted as the 6-seed for next week’s state tournament, and will battle No. 3 Spring Mills in the quarterfinal round next Thursday morning. The Hawks and Cardinals battled to a one-possession contest, which Spring Mills won 52-49, on March 5.
Morgantown 63, Jefferson 54
The top-seeded Mohigans got all they could handle from the 8-seed Jefferson, but were able to pull ahead late in the contest.
MHS senior Waylon Colistra led the way in the victory with 21 points and six boards. Max Frey added 17 and Colin Ridgeway, 14.
“When you think it’s going to be easy, it’s never easy, but it’s a regional, and Jefferson had nine seniors, and they played their absolute hearts out and were well coached,” MHS head coach David Tallman said. “It was tough. You try to warn your players that intensity in (the postseason) is a lot higher than a regular-season game, but I thought we handled adversity well, especially in the second half.”
Morgantown will serve as the 2-seed in Class AAAA in Charleston next week and will square off with No. 7 Riverside on Thursday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.
The Mohigans defeated Riverside 75-55 on December 29.
