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Central Sends Seniors Off With Hard-Fought Win Over Fighting Irish

By NICK HENTHORN 4 min read

WHEELING - The Maroon Knights celebrated their seniors and scored a big win over a top-five opponent in the Charleston Catholic Fighting Irish, 69-61.

Wheeling Central honored seniors Kaitlyn Blake, Ava Hanson and Angelina Robrecht before the game.

"They're a great group of seniors, they do anything you ask them to," Wheeling Central head coach Roberta Olejasz said. "They're fast learners. Ava and Ang, they learned to scout- Ava Hanson's one of the smartest basketball players that we have, she knows the game of basketball very well. This group just goes through a gauntlet with what we do in practice.

"It's bittersweet, they're moving onto the next phase of their lives here shortly, and we're going to miss them certainly. Kaitlyn Blake, she's a superstar, so to watch her move and grow- she's got big goals for herself, she's going to be a physician's assistant, her academics are just as important as sports for her. Losing her is going to be sad, but it's awesome to watch all of them grow into the people they're going to be."

On the court, the Knights fended off an Irish team that refused to go away all the way to the final minute.

Leading 50-41 going into the fourth quarter, strong offensive rebounding and defense by Charleston had them within two, 57-55, after Ali Wilcox was fouled on a putback attempt and made two free throws just ahead of the three-minute mark.

Another offensive rebound and putback by the Irish's Nora Aliff tied the game 57-57 with two minutes to play.

Blake drew a foul inside for Wheeling, and the senior made both to lurch her team back ahead by two.

Central's Seneca Heller came up with a steal and was fouled on the other end, and made one of two for a 60-57 showing with 1:36 to go.

Charleston Catholic suffered another turnover on a sailed pass out of bounds, and Wheeling Central played keepaway until the 1:06 mark when Heller was intentionally fouled. The junior made both to make it a five-point game.

Central's Eren Maxwell forced another Irish turnover next, deflecting a pass along the baseline which bounced off a Charleston Catholic player's shoulder and out of bounds.

With 34 seconds left, Blake was fouled and made both free throws to make it desperation time for Charleston, down 65-59.

Heller and Blake each made two more free throws to ice the game.

Wheeling Central was tied for first place in the latest West Virginia Girls Basketball AP Poll, and Charleston Catholic was fourth.

"Wes Hevener is a tremendous coach," Olejasz said. "To have them come in here and to play them at this time of the year is huge for us. They're probably the No. 2 team, definitely top five, in the state. To be able to survive their run and hold them off the way we did, it shows we're able to persevere pretty strongly now. We're growing and probably peaking at the right time."

Blake and Heller each had 24 points. Heller was very aggressive with her shot in the second half, making two 3-pointers and diving down the lane to draw fouls. The point guard scored 16 points after halftime.

She also came up with several key steals in the fourth quarter, big plays to cut off Irish possessions on a day where the visitors were thriving on the offensive glass.

"Seneca Heller is huge for us defensively and offensively," Olejasz said. "Not only does she make everything go, she also was getting to the rim and getting buckets for us tonight.

"They did a good job on Kaitlyn, they were double, triple-teaming her, grabbing her arms, it was hard for her to get shots up- and she did, she still had 24 and Sen had 24. These two need to have big nights in games like this in order for us to win. I thought they both were tremendous tonight."

Addie Payton had nine and Bella Fitzsimmons had eight for the Maroon.

Mary Rushworth scored 20 for the Irish, followed by Wilcox's 18 and Aliff's 16.

Wheeling Central next faces Robert C. Byrd on Monday, their second-to-last regular season game before postseason play.

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