High School Sports

Knights Roll To Sectional Title

MOUNDSVILLE -- After suffering through a rough patch late in the season that included five losses in six games, Wheeling Central's girls' basketball team is getting healthier and getting better at the right time.

Coach Penn Kurtz' Maroon Knights have won four games in a row since then, two to become Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Class 2A champions and two more to secure a sectional championship.

Friday night Wheeling Central proved that they will once again be a team to be reckoned with heading into March with a dominating victory over Cameron.

Senior Kaylee Reinbeau scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the first quarter as the Maroon Knights turned up the pressure on the Dragons and took control early with a 17-0 burst that eventually turned into 69-34 triumph in the West Virginia Class A Region One, Section One championship game at the John Marshall Fieldhouse.

With last night's victory Kurtz' state-ranked club improves to 13-11 on the season and will return to its East Wheeling gym Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to host Ritchie County in a Region One co-championship game with the victor advancing to the state tournament in Charleston.

Meanwhile, Coach Holly Pettit's Dragons will have to go on the road that same night and will need to defeat St. Marys in the other half of the region to try and punch its ticket to the State Capital. The Blue Devils defeated the Rebels 51-36 in last night's Region Two championship game.

"This team has gotten healthy and gotten better over the last few weeks," Kurtz said with a big smile. "We got to the point in the season that we just weren't playing very well, and we decided it was up to us to turn things around and that is what we did.

"And as much as we missed Kaylee when she was injured, I really believe that her not being on the court made some of the other girls a lot better in the long run."

After a put-back from junior Lili Neely just 30 seconds into the game Cameron had its first, and only, lead of the night at 2-0. Reinbeau evened the count with a pair of charity tosses and Central quickly went into a full-court press that helped produce a 17-0 burst.

When all was said and done in the first quarter the Knights were enjoying a 28-4 bulge while the teams combined for 15 fouls and 18 turnovers in the initial eight minutes. Cameron's 12 turnovers led to 11 Wheeling Central points along the way.

Unfortunately for Pettit's 15-7 record club, after Neely canned a pair of free throws to make it a 17-4 score midway through the first, the Maroon Knights scored the final 11 points of the opening stanza and capped a second 17-0 burst of the first half on a Reinbeau hoop at 4:18 of the second to make it 34-4.

In finishing the half with a 41-10 lead, Central was 13 of 24 from the field and had forced 18 Cameron turnovers. On the other side the Dragons were shooting a woeful 10-percent from the field having hit just 2 of 20 attempts and going 12:14 of clock time without a field goal. Pettit also had to deal with foul trouble as three starters and her first player off the bench all had three at the break.

Kurtz watched a total of 12 of his 14 players dent the scoring column on the night with the Maroon Knights' starters taking a seat and turning things over to the bench with 5:20 to play in the third quarter.

"We wanted to come out and get off to a fast start and we did that with a dominating first quarter," Kurtz said. "I am very happy with how aggressive we played on both ends of the court. As a team we have been working hard on that in practice for the last couple of weeks.

"It's a pretty exciting time right now and I am very happy and excited and that Kaylee and Hannah (White) will get to play in one more home game in their careers."

Reinbeau completed the double-double with 10 rebounds while Hannah White finished with 10 points and Tristen White and freshman Naliah Lekandus added six each. Lekandus was a big part of Central's first quarter defensive show with five steals.

Freshman Aubrie Cain-Loy paced the Dragons with 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds while senior Maelyn Canada added eight and Neely finished with seven.

Cameron grabbed a 37-33 edge off the glass, with 19 of those coming against Central reserves in the fourth quarter, while turning the ball over 23 times to 15 for the winners.

"We knew what we were up against coming into this game and we told the girls that they had nothing to lose," Pettit said. "But they really flustered us with their press and we continually turned the ball over.

"The girls got frustrated but we are a much better basketball team than we showed (Friday). We also had a lot of foul trouble and it just wasn't a good night for us. But Wheeling Central is a good team and give them credit, they came out and played a great game.

"Our kids have worked hard all season long and we will get ready and prepared for next week's regional and hopefully we will come out and that one and play like we know how to play."

Cameron was just 11 of 57 for 19-percent from the floor while Central finished right at 50-percent with a 27 of 54 showing.