“Our goal every year is to try to win an OVAC championship, and then, after that, try to get to Charleston and have a chance to win one there,” Wheeling Central head coach Mel Stephens said after the game. “So, you know, we’ll see how the seedings come out tonight, see who we play first, and tomorrow we’ll start getting ready for that one.”

The final score reflected a decisive Central win, but early on, the Maroon were in an uncharacteristic lull. After the first few minutes of play, the Silver Knights led 7-4. The two teams traded the lead back and forth, with Wheeling Central leading 17-14 at quarter’s end after Max Olejasz converted a putback right before the buzzer.

Thursday was an extra-special night for Olejasz, as the senior crossed the 1,000-point threshold on a 3-pointer from the wing with 1:06 remaining in the second quarter. Olejasz finished with a game-high 26 points despite sitting out late in the game along with all of Central’s starters. After Wheeling Central’s quiet first quarter, Olejasz helped the Maroon Knights pick things up with no less than four slam dunks between the second and third quarters.

“He got off to a really good start,” Stephens said. “Got a couple breakaways. That’s just a fitting end to his career in this gym, you know, to get to 1,000 points here tonight in a regional championship game.”

Wheeling Central led 39-25 at halftime and 70-37 after three quarters. Wheeling Central entered Thursday having not played since Feb. 27.

“You hate to use that long layoff as a reason, but I think that was part of it, we hadn’t played for so long,” Stephens said. “Probably our last three or four practices, we were like, we got to just get done with this and get to a game. So I think it took a little while for the juices to start flowing. But, they knew what was at stake and they were definitely getting ready for that. It just took us a little while to get warmed up.”

Eli Sancomb scored 22 points with nine rebounds and seven assists. Luke Sancomb scored seven, while Nico Kusic, Riley Taylor and Dylan Blatt each scored six.

John Mace led Tyler with 15 points, making five 3-pointers for the Knights.

Wheeling Central enters the state competition with a 20-0 record, and as the top seed in the recently-released Class AA state tournament field. The Maroon Knights will face No. 8 Frankfort (15-9) on Tuesday, March 17 at 7:15 p.m. inside the Charleston Coliseum.

Wyoming East is the two-seed, Bluefield No. 3, Doddridge County No. 4, Wayne No. 5, Petersburg No. 6 and Logan No. 7.

With good memories from a state title win the last time they rolled into Charleston, the Maroon Knights are eager for another opportunity to climb to the summit.

“I think when that [championship] game finished last year, we lost four really, really quality senior kids, but the other guys that were coming back, that was their goal from the minute they left the locker room down there, it was ‘We want to get back here and we want to be able to play for another one.’ So, you know, they’ve met expectations every game this year. We played a really tough schedule and to fight through that and still be undefeated, you know, and get a chance to go to Charleston, it’s a huge, huge accomplishment for those guys.”