The Maroon Knights kicked off their 2025-26 regular season with an outing in Friday’s Sam Andy Classic, held inside WesBanco Arena, against the Brooke Bruins, who were coming off a win against Harrison Central in their own season opener. Central and their reigning Evans Award winner Eli Sancomb were too much for the Bruins on Friday though, as Sancomb scored his 1,000 career point in an 86-61 victory over Brooke.

“He’s such a great kid and, they always say, it’s good when your best player is your hardest worker,” Wheeling Central assistant coach Tyler Morando said. “It’s just unbelievable the amount of time and work that he puts in. I mean, he’s literally in the gym all the time, before school, after school, practice. And that’s been from a young age. I’m really proud of him. He just does so much for our team and it’s not just scoring– the points are great, but he’s a great leader.”

“Truthfully, a thousand points– he missed his entire freshman year with the ACL, and then his sophomore year he missed about six weeks with a broken hand. I don’t know how many points that would be, but this would’ve come a lot sooner. So I’m really proud of him and just the way he carries himself, he’s such a great kid and you know, the work he puts into it, it’s really special to see someone like that get rewarded for the time and the work they put in.”

Sancomb crossed 1,000 points on a 3-point shot with 3:53 left to play in the third quarter. Sancomb entered the game 24 points away from 1,000, and was masterful in finishing with 32 points, 13 assists, six rebounds and six steals.

Max Olejasz scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Luke Sancomb nailed five 3-pointers in finishing with 17 points, and Steven Brodegard had eight points and eight rebounds.

Brooke received an explosive scoring outing from one of their own as well– sophomore Crosby Morris, who pumped in 26 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Andrew Murdock scored 13 and dished five assists.

Wheeling Central led wire-to-wire Friday, but Brooke remained within striking distance through most of the first half– midway through the second quarter, the Bruins were down 13 points, and ended the half down 50-32. Brooke’s offense was clicking in the second quarter, a period where they were only outscored 21-19 by Central, but the Maroon point-scoring machine was too much for the youthful Bruins to keep up with throughout the whole game.

“We wanted this game,” Brooke head coach Adam Shinsky said. “You know, we’ve joined the Buckeye Eight this year and I’d told coach [Michael Jebbia, Wheeling Park head coach] that I don’t think we could play in the Sam Andy. Well, we moved some things around because the opportunity came to play Central. We know they’re– I don’t know much about the teams in the bottom of the state, but they’re a top four program in the state at the worst. They’re really good. I mean, my guys came out, we’re young, we battled hard. We get a lot of energy on Eli Sancomb. Luke Sancomb’s a phenomenal player. Kusic’s a phenomenal player. Olejasz can really shoot for a big man, he’s great. I mean, there’s just so many weapons and we are out there trying hard.

“I know the score might not’ve looked it at times, but there were a couple sequences in the second quarter, third quarter, where we went basket-for-basket stop with them. It was a great opportunity to play and I appreciate them playing us because that game made us better.”

Central’s offense did not look like a first-game outfit, with impressive passes and good timing amounting to 24 assists as a team. The Knights’ first basket of the game came on a nifty bounce pass from Olejasz in the high post to Brodegard in the low post, the first of many assists that had Central looking in midseason form.

“When you have guys like that, like Max and Steve and Eli, you’ve got seniors that have kind of been through it and they understand what it takes and you know, I thought we really moved the ball well,” Morando said.

“We appreciate Adam Shinsky, former Wheeling Central guy, we’ve coached with him. We have a lot of respect for those guys and we knew, first game, coming in, they’ve already had a game under their belt. We didn’t have a lot of scouting stuff on them, but I thought we moved the ball well. We kind of got a little bit lax there when we got a decent lead. Defensively, our transition after we would make a basket, defensive transition wasn’t there for about four to six minutes. [Brooke was] able to kind of get back into the game a little bit. But overall, I was pleased with our effort for it being the first game.”

Wheeling Central (1-0) next plays Tyler at home on Dec. 16. Brooke (1-1) travels to face Indian Creek on Dec. 16.