Red-hot start leads to big win for Morgantown boys

MORGANTOWN — The temperature plummeted in Mon County early Saturday, but the Morgantown boys’ basketball team’s offense was red-hot as the Mohigans doubled up visiting Brooke 102-51 inside the Rowdie Center.

Led by a career-high 22 points from senior Jacob King, Morgantown (8-1) used a barrage of threes to score 31 points in the first quarter to take control of the game from the jump.

MHS’s first four field goals came from range as the Mohigans finished with seven treys in the opening frame and 13 in the game.

“It’s just having energy,” said senior Izzy Everett. “We preach energy every day in practice. Having energy lets us come out hot and beat teams like that.”

Everet led the team with four three-pointers and finished with 16 points. He and King were held to just two combined points in the first half against University Friday night, but the pair combined for 25 before the break against the Bruins (5-5).

“Coach got on us a little bit,’ Everett said. “We’re seniors on this team. We’ve got to lead by example and we really didn’t do that in the first half (Friday).  So we just wanted to bring it (Saturday).”

Everett’s third trey of the first half gave MHS a 49-16 lead midway through the second quarter as the team went on to lead 59-20 at halftime. Everett had 11 first-half points, King had 14 and fellow senior Sharron Young had 12.

“We’ve got to make sure we get the ball into Jacob and Izzy’s hands early on and get them goin,” MHS coach Dave Tallman said. “If they’re going and Sharron is, then we’ll be a hard team to beat. That was more my fault (Friday), they didn’t get a whole lot of touches.”

The Bruins played better after the break and made five threes of their own in the third quarter, but the damage was already done as Morgantown all but coasted to a 102-51 victory.

King finished with 10 field goals, two three-pointers and a career-high 22 points to lead the team.

“He came out with great energy,” Tallman said. “He was ready to play, he was ready to shoot the ball and he was aggressive. I told him (Friday) he’s got to look at the basket more.”

Young finished with 19 points and Everett had 16. Waylon Colistra came off the bench to add 14 and Jaylon Hill scored nine. MHs had 11 players make at least one field goal and seven made at least one three-pointer.

“We’ve got a bunch of talented people from the first person to the last person,’ Everett said. “Everyone can dribble, everyone can shoot, everyone can score so just sharing the basketball and getting everyone involved really helps us.”

Leyton Toepfer’s 16 points led Brooke, followed by Garrett Millam’s 15 on fies threes.

Morgantown travels for a matchup with fellow top-five team Wheeling Park Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

BOX SCORE
Morgantown 102, Brooke 51
Bro 14 6 18 13 — 51
MHS 31 28 22 21 — 102
BROOKE (5-5) — Sagan 0 0-0 0; P. Toepfer 3 0-0 7; Millam 5 0-0 15; L. Toepfer 5 3-4 16; Kimball 3 0-0 6; McKennen 1 0-0 3; Urso 1 0-0 2; Murdock 1 0-0 2; McMahon 0 0-0 0; Provenzano 0 0-0 0; Petrella.
MORGANTOWN (9-1) — Everett 6 0-0 16; Young 8 2-2 19; King 10 0-0 22; Shrewsberry 1 0-0 2; Savage 2 2-2 6; M. Johnson 2 0-0 5; Frey 1 0-0 3; Colistra 6 1-2 14; Hill 4 0-0 9; A. Johnson 1 0-0 2; Goins 1 0-0 2.
3-Pt. Goals — Brooke 10 (Millam 5, L. Toepfer 3, P. Toepfer 1, McKennen 1). Morgantown 13 (Everett 4, Young 3, King 2, M. Johnson 1, Frey 1, Colistra 1, Hill 1).