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Wheeling Central Starts AA State Tournament With A Bang, Defeats Philip Barbour 78-48

By NICK HENTHORN 3 min read

CHARLESTON - It took a couple minutes for them to kick into a high gear, but once the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights got rolling, they never slowed down on their way to a dominant opening display in the Class AA quarterfinals Tuesday inside the Charleston Coliseum.

The No. 1 Maroon Knights defeated the No. 8 Philip Barbour Colts 78-48, taking a lead at the 5:30 mark of the first quarter that they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

Wheeling Central senior Kaitlyn Blake began her time in Charleston with a monster game- 37 points and 10 rebounds on 15-19 shooting from the field and 7-7 shooting from the foul line.

"We're going to miss her next year," Wheeling head coach Roberta Olejasz said. "When we need a bucket, we look for Kailtyn. And Seneca [Heller-] finds her, Addie Payton finds her. We just find a way- she runs the floor like no other. We tell them in transition, even if she rebounds the ball, she's coming. 100% of the time, Kaitlyn's coming."

“She’s got good moves under the basket,” Philip Barbour head coach Rick Mouser said of Blake. “She runs the floor. She can hit the mid-range jumper. She’s really a player. We knew that going in. And we tried to stop her. But she wants it, too. She’s more experienced and she can use either hand around the bucket.”

Heller and Payton had impressive performances of their own- Heller scoring 17 points and Payton tallying 11 assists and nine points- for the Maroon Knights, who now look towards a matchup against the winner of No. 4 Wyoming East vs. No. James Monroe. Central's state semifinal game against the winner will be on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.

The Maroon did not get on the scoreboard for the first few minutes of Tuesday's matchup, as the Colts got off to a 4-0 lead, but it did not take long for Central to start scoring in bunches.

A Kaitlyn Blake and-one under the basket permanently flipped the lead to Wheeling Central, 7-6, and the Maroon Knights had doubled up Philip Barbour by the end of the first quarter, 30-15.

Central led 49-26 at halftime, using a fast-paced offense and aggressive defense in the passing lanes- Payton had seven steals while Heller and Haley Severns each had six- to stretch their advantage.

Though Philip Barbour battled in the third quarter, a frame where Colts sophomore Izzy Knotts scored 11 of her team-high 22 points, the lead remained double figures throughout the third quarter, before Wheeling Central completely overtook Philip Barbour in the fourth, winning the quarter 17-1.

Knotts had 15 rebounds to go with 22 points in a strong showing.

It seemed as if the Knights surged down the stretch, while the Colts were out of gas.

"We run in practice like no other," Olejasz said. "These long timeouts aren’t necessarily good for us because we like to wear teams down with the way we're in shape. When you get a 70-second timeout, we're like 'We can't wear them out like this.' We don't want the 70's we want the 30's."

Wheeling Central dominated in the turnover differential, forcing 30 Colts turnovers against 18 of their own, and had 20 team assists against Philip Barbour's 11.

As a team, The Knights shot 53% from the floor while holding the Colts to 32% shooting.

On the other side of the bracket in Class AA, No. 3 Charleston Catholic defeated No. 6 Logan 45-35 and No. 2 St. Marys defeated No. 7 Ritchie County, 57-37. Charleston Catholic and St. Marys will play on Thursday at 11:15 a.m.

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