OVAC Will be Well-Represented at Mountain East Conference Tournament
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WHEELING -- With the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference being the largest high school conference in America, there will be a handful of athletes that will play at the next level.
And when it comes to basketball, the Mountain East Conference is about as competitive as you can find with it being the high-scoring conference on both the men's and women's side.
The MEC Tournament tips off Wednesday at WesBanco Arena and will continue through Sunday. With 10 men's and women's teams competing for a championship, there are a plethora of former OVAC standouts who will take the floor ready for tipoff.
Many of these athletes are key pieces to their team. Here are the former OVAC players playing at WesBanco Arena.
On the women's side, Morgan Brunner and Monica Bragg will suit up for West Liberty. Brunner -- who played at Linsly -- has been in the national spotlight all year.
Brunner has put together another standout season in a Hilltopper uniform. She is leading the nation in two categories. With her 106 3-pointers, she is on top of the NCAA Division II leaderboards along with having the nation's best free throw percentage. She has gone 75 of 78 for the year for a .962 percentage.
Bragg, who has battled injuries throughout her Hilltopper career, has been a solid role player for the Hilltoppers. She netted a season-high seven points against Notre Dame on Nov. 26 and pulled down seven rebounds against Urbana three days earlier.
She had a solid Senior Day against Wheeling as she played 15 minutes going 2 of 2 from the field, finishing with six points.
Wheeling features a trio of former OVAC standouts. Lilly Ritz, a Cambridge alum, transferred to the Cardinals program from California (Pa.) and has been a force to be reckoned with all season.
She leads the nation in rebounds (436) and tied an NCAA record with a 36-rebound performance in a victory over West Virginia State on Feb. 8. She also averages a double-double scoring 21.4 points per game along with grabbing 15.6 boards. Her rebounding average also leads the Division II field.
Kelsi Chapman (Magnolia) and Emily Holzopfel (Buckeye Local) have also seen action throughout the season for the Cardinals.
Chapman's best outing was against Urbana on Nov. 26 where she tallied 12 points going 4 of 6 from behind the 3-point arc.
Holzopfel, a freshman, turned in a 20-point performance against Gannon on Dec. 13.
Wheeling Central graduate Taylor Duplaga has enjoyed in an impressive redshirt freshman season.
Starting two games this season, Duplaga has seen the court 27 times this season. The former Maroon Knight standout had her best performance against Glenville State on Feb. 5 when she scored 23 points going 7 of 13 from the field and 9 of 10 from the free throw line.
Parkersburg South's Anna Hayton has started all 28 games this season and leads the Golden Eagles in points per game (19) and rebounds (231).
The senior had a season-best 30 points and 15 rebounds on Feb. 9 at West Liberty.
Reagan Sharp, a graduate of Trinity has seen some playing time for Davis and Elkins. As a true freshman, she has seen 27 games and averaging eight minutes of playing time.
On the men's side Glenville State's Phil Bledsoe has been one of the conference's best player since he stepped foot on the court a year ago.
Bledsoe, a Wheeling Park graduate transferred to the Pioneer program from Marshall. He is second in the conference in scoring (20.5 points pe game). He scored a season-high 32 points against West Virginia State on Nov. 23 that included him hitting seven 3-pointers. He also had back-to-back 31-point games against Frostburg State and Fairmont State on Dec. 11 and 15.
Parkersburg South's Seth Fallon has also seen quality playing time as a freshman for the Pioneers.
His best game came against Wheeling on Dec. 8 where he scored 12 points going 4 of 7 from the field.
Fairmont State has a duo of Morgantown graduates in Kenzie Melko-Marshall and Steven Solomon.
Melko has started in all 28 games this season for the Falcons. Averaging 14.9 points a game, he tallied two 30-point games. The first, against Concord on Dec. 10 where he hit five 3-pointers. The other was against West Liberty on Jan. 15 where he netted 30 points going 12 of 18 from the field.
Solomon has seen action 15 times where his best outing was against Carlow on Jan. 4. He went 7 of 14 from the field and netted 15 points.