Wheeling Central Holds Off Weir High Girls, 61-54
Consecutive Bonus Goals To Start 3rd Quarter Are Key
Trending
WHEELING -- It's been said that good teams find ways to win games. Wheeling Central did just that Monday night.
The state-ranked Maroon Knights (13-2) were coming off a loss on Saturday that snapped a 12-game winning streak, and West Virginia's fifth-ranked Class AA girls' basketball team found itself in a dogfight with visiting Weir High, a team it had beaten by 27 on the road earlier this season.
However, despite shooting a dismal 8-for-41 from beyond the three-point arc, Wheeling Central was able to knock down back-to-back triples early in the third quarter and pulled away from the Red Riders, 61-54, on Coach Skip Prosser Court inside the Maroon Knight Athletic Complex.
"These girls just find ways to win. We seem to win differently every time," Wheeling Central head coach Roberta Olejasz said. "They dig down, play together and find ways to win.
"Coming off that loss on Saturday (at Frontier), I thought the girls did a good job of recovering from it," Olejasz noted. "Sometimes you never know how a team will react after a loss, especially when it stopped a long winning streak, but I thought they kept their composure and got the win.
"That loss (on Saturday) didn't hurt us," she said. "It might have been a blessing."
Leading 35-33 at the half, Wheeling Central's Valerie Downing drilled her only trey of the game and, after a Red Riders miss at the other, Lily Vogrin connected on one of her four bonus goals as the lead was suddenly 41-33. A bucket by Downing stretched the margin to 48-40 after three quarters.
Weir High (4-9) head coach Rick Stead was proud of the way his team performed in defeat. The Red Riders entered the contest riding a three-game winning streak.
"Over the last two or three weeks, these girls have been improving and improving," he said. "We're playing better defense, we're playing better basketball. The girls rose to the challenge tonight, unfortunately, it just wasn't enough. I'm proud of them."
Weir High got to within 48-43 early in the fourth on a basket by cat-quick Janai Turner, but Wilkinson answered at the other end for a 50-43 reading. Two free throws by the Red Riders' Mia Kauffman cut the deficit to 50-45, but Vogrin delivered the nail in the coffin with her fourth three-pointer for a 53-54 margin .
The advantage eventually grew to 12, 59-47, on a trey by Brook Edge, who would finish with 14 points, nine steals, seven assists and a trio of rebounds.
The two teams raced up and down the court in the first quarter like they were competing in a track meet as the hosts led 23-20. There were a combined 16 turnovers in the initial eight minutes and a grand total of 50 for the game, which didn't surprise Olejasz.
"They kind of got us out of our offense in the first quarter and had us playing their game," Olejasz noted. "I kept telling my girls to slow it down and play our game."
The Maroon Knights game, which is usually centered around its outside game, relied on the inside punch of Keiera Wilkinson. The 6-foot senior netted 16 of her game-high 20 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting. However, foul troubles plagued her in the second and fourth quarters before she eventually went to the bench for good with less than 25 seconds left. She finished with 10 rebounds for a double-double.
Vogrin also registered a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards.
Turner led the Red Riders with 15 points, one more than Rayna Hoover, who had a team-best nine rebounds. Olivia Baker checked in with nine. Turner also charted a half-a-dozen steals and four assists.
Wheeling Central treks to St. Marys on Wednesday.