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Wheeling Central Maroon Knights Open With ‘W’

No Harler, no problem for Central

Photo by Cody Tomer Wheeling Central’s John Burkhalter snags a rebound during Tuesday’s game against Morgantown Trinity. The Maroon Knights won, 62-43.

WHEELING — The inaugural game on Coach “Skip” Prosser Court was a success for the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights, who came away with a 62-43 victory over visiting Trinity on Tuesday.

Wheeling Central forced Trinity into 27 turnovers and three Knights reached double figures to start the season off with a win.

A season ago, Wheeling Central reached the state championship game but fell to St. Joseph in overtime. It was also led by the talented Chase Harler, who is currently suiting up for the West Virginia Mountaineers, but even without him, the Knights looked like a championship-caliber team and head coach Mel Stephens believes his team can fill the void together.

“A lot of times when you lose a really good player like that, the other guys realize that they have to step up a little bit,” Stephens said. “For us to be as good as we want to be, I think it will have to be by committee. It might be one guy on one night and a different guy the next. We have to be unselfish and not care about who does it, as long as we get the job done and I think we have the guys who can do that.

“I think the experience from the state championship can help this team. We lost Chase, Brian Campbell and Patrick Hurley but the rest of our guys are back and they all went through that. Our seniors have been down there three years in a row and I hope the experience pays off down the road for us.”

Wheeling Central sent a message early as Brent Price defied gravity and rocked the rim with a dunk to tie the game at 6-6. After a quick Trinity bucket, the Knights drained back-to-back 3-pointers by Gabe Rohmann and Adam Jarrett to put Wheeling Central on top by a 12-8 mark. The Warriors never led again.

Price made sure of it with a mammoth block with moments to go in the first to keep his squad’s lead in tact at 15-12.

The Maroon Knights began the second quarter with a steal by Price, who finished on the other end. Trinity’s Austin Hinerman hit two foul shots but then Owen Gainer provided back-to-back buckets for Central to extend the lead to 21-14 with 3:50 until the half.

Gainer scored 10 in the first half and Price added seven for the Knights.

Price made sure the momentum stayed in the Knights’ favor with another rim rattling dunk in the third, finishing off a 6-0 run by Wheeling Central to begin the second half.

The hosts held a 37-28 advantage midway through the third when they went on their biggest run of the game, reeling off 10 consecutive points to make it a 47-28 lead.

Price tallied seven points in the third, while John Burkhalter chipped in with six.

Price finished off his stellar performance with four points in the fourth to help the Knights secure a victory.

“We played well in spurts,” Stephens said. “There are a lot of things we can get better at and we have just one day to do it before we get Notre Dame so we are going to have to learn on the fly but I think part of it was just the fact of it being the first game. When there are people in the stands, it can be a little bit different.”

Price paced Wheeling Central with 18 points, followed by Burkhalter and Gainer who each garnered 10 and Bray Price added six.

Burkhalter also led the Maroon Knights on the boards with six rebounds.

Trinity won the battle on the boards with 28 rebounds compared to Central Catholic’s 22 as Joseph Zini led the Warriors with six rebounds.

Zini also paced the offense for the visitors with 14 points.

“Our guys didn’t handle the pressure very well,” Trinity coach John Fowkes said. “We didn’t believe in our capabilities to bust their press and you are not going to win many games with 27 turnovers, especially in this place.

“I thought Zini challenged them but they adjusted to that and came out with pressure and it worked. (Stephens) is a Hall of Fame legend and I am a first-year coach and I took one on the head today. We will get better and that is all we can do.”

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