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Central Blows Past Valley

Knights to play Dragons in sectional title game

Photo by Kyle Lutz Wheeling Central’s Naliah Lekanudos drives to the basket during Tuesday’s West Virginia Class A Region One, Section One semifinal against Valley.

MOUNDSVILLE — One of the things that Wheeling Central coach Penn Kurtz wanted to do during Tuesday’s West Virginia Class A Region One, Section One semifinal was get off to a fast start. Mission accomplished. The Maroon Knights scored 11 of the game’s first 13 points and ended the first half on a 17-0 run. Along with leading by 33 (43-10) at halftime, the Maroon Knights were able to play all their players in a 68-39 victory over Valley at the John Marshall Fieldhouse.

“We wanted to get off to a quick start and we did,” Kurtz said. “We’ve been working on some things the last two weeks since we didn’t have a game. We just wanted to make sure we executed those things (Tuesday). Take care of the ball, make good passes, execute on the offensive end, and then we just wanted to see what we could do straight up with our defense. I thought we did a nice job. They (Valley) can shoot the ball if you let them get open shots. We went down and watched them play Hundred and they had 10 3-pointers. We had to get up on their shooters. I think getting off to that quick start made it easier for us the rest of the game. We got to play a lot of people and everybody got in the game and did something.”

He’s right. A total of 13 Maroon Knights entered the game where 10 of them found the scoring column. Hannah White paced Wheeling Central with a game-high 14 points with 12 of them coming in the first quarter. Tristen White was also solid as she compiled 11 points — eight of which came in the opening frame.

Kaylee Reinbeau and Abbey Jones –who came off the bench — both scored 10 points.

“They’ve been doing a great job the last couple weeks,” Kurtz said of his reserves. “They come into the gym every night and work hard, try to help that starting group get better. They had a chance to play (Tuesday). I was proud of them and we can what we can do Friday night.”

Although they were down by 33 after halftime, there was no quit in the Lumberjills. Paced by Jamey West, Valley was able to outscore Wheeling Central in the second half. West tallied 12 points — 10 of which came after halftime — while Kimberly Soles tallied eight and Reagan Dallison had seven.

“One of the things coming into the game, we’ve watched film and we knew a lot of the schematic things that they (Wheeling Central) did. But one of the things that’s really hard to prep for is how fast they are,”Valley coach Casey Sapp said. “They’re able, without pressing you, put enough pressure on you that as soon as one of our girls hit the half court line, they were in our face. We couldn’t see over them. When you let a team like that with that much talent get a few turnovers on you, they are going to cash it for layups and that’s exactly what they did.”

Wheeling Central will take on Wheeling Central Friday night at the John Marshall Fieldhouse for the sectional championship. The Dragons came away with a victory against Madonna (42-38) in the other semifinal game Tuesday night.

“They play excellent defense. They’re a good defensive team,” Kurtz said of Cameron. “They’ll challenge us, so we’ll have to execute again on the offensive end, take care of the basketball, not giving away turnovers and we have to concentrate on getting back on our defensive end. If we do those things it should be a good game.”

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