Wheeling Central Boys Earn Key Win for Sectional
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WHEELING -- After making the move to Class AAA this year, Wheeling Central coach Mel Stephens made it a goal for his team to earn the No. 1 seed in its section.
Following Tuesday's dominating 70-32 home victory over Oak Glen, the Maroon Knights sit at 5-0 against sectional opponents and are likely to have home court advantage in the sectional tournament.
"Saturday was a big win for us," Stephens said of the 53-49 win over North Marion. "(Tuesday) was a big game for us, too. Another sectional game and we wanted to make sure we finished basically unbeaten in our section so that there is really no doubt about who gets the one seed in our section, which is important. If you can play at home, it makes a little bit of a difference and we accomplished that goal. Now, we're looking forward to trying to win games and trying to improve our standing in the OVAC down the stretch."
Playing without their leading scorer, Ryan Reasbeck, for the fourth straight game, the Knights received 18 points from all-state senior J.C. Maxwell and 11 points from Michael Toepfer.
Senior Luke Canestraro also came off the bench to net 11 points, which included a monster dunk and a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions to seal the victory in the fourth.
"(Reasbeck) says he's feeling better," Stephens said. "It will be another week before he goes back to see the doctor but hopefully he gets cleared and he'll be good for the rest of the time down the stretch. But, to lose our leading scorer and still be able to win games is big.
"We talked when we knew we'd have him out for a while about how it wasn't going to be one guy picking up everything that Ryan does for us. It was going to be a collection of everybody getting a couple of extra rebounds or points -- whatever it took. We've done a good job of that and all four games we've held our opponents under 50 points. We were trying to make them understand that if we can hold down on defense, we don't have to score as many points as we normally do and I think they bought into that."
Oak Glen was also playing without its two best players in Jacob Clark (knee) and Gage Patterson (foot) and both are done for the season.
"They are key guys," Oak Glen coach Jerry Everly said. "But, these guys are battling and they are learning. They are young, so we only had one senior play (Tuesday). It's been a rough year for us but we just have to keep battling."
Battle they did.
The Golden Bears found themselves trailing 9-7 midway through the first quarter, despite losing their top two players. However, the Maroon Knights reeled off a 16-0 run, followed by an 8-0 burst in the second quarter to take a 37-13 cushion into halftime.
Maxwell had 11 points in the first half.
Central outscored Oak Glen 14-9 in the third and 19-10 in the fourth to capture the victory.
"(Wheeling Central) is physical and they are really good," Everly said. "Hats off to them. That's how they play and they do a good job of it."
Chaise Clark paced Oak Glen with 20 points.
"This was a good game for us," Stephens said. "Jerry does a good job with those guys but they were definitely short-handed. They probably lost their best two players and that's tough but their kids played hard."