CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Dominique Newman scored 18 points, including a 27-foot jumper on his team’s first possession, and No. 1 Washington easily defeated eighth-seeded Morgantown 81-61 in the Class AAA quarterfinals.
“We just go out there and try not to rush things,” Newman said. “Coach (Don) Bullett preaches letting the game to you. But, I mean, if you give me space I’m going to shoot it.”
The Patriots (25-0) led by as many as 27 points with all five starters scoring in double figures.
“I thought we did a great job defensively and rebounding the ball,” Bullett said. “We also did a nice job in our half-court as well. I thought the kids played well tonight.”
The deep-shooting Newman made four of Washington’s five 3-pointers, while Kendall Smith was a force down low with 15 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
“Dominique knows he has the green light,” Bullett said. “He doesn’t take bad shots. He’s pretty smart at taking good shots in the offense.”
Jefferson transfer Josh Dudley scored 10 of his 18 points at the foul line before exiting in the second half after bumping his hip. Dudley said after the game he will use Thursday’s day off to ice the hip.
Maleke and Jerome Jones each scored 11 and 10 points respectively for the Patriots, who attempted 32 free throws to Morgantown’s nine.
The Mohigans (15-11) were paced by Steven Solomon’s 11 points, while Zakeem Davis, Elvin McNally and Shaun Carden each scored nine in the loss.
“Washington is obviously very good. We just tried to go out and play our hardest,” Solomon said. “We played our hardest and I’m proud of our guys.”
The Patriots’ speed and athleticism was like nothing Morgantown faced this season. Coach Tom Yester even compared it to the Dupont duo Randy Moss and Jason Williams from 20 years ago.
“It’s hard to simulate playing against that type of team in practice,” Yester said. “We shot bad shots and then paid for it. They’re very quick and good to the rim.”
Morgantown committed 16 turnovers to Washington’s six.
“We have a lot of seniors that know where each other are on the court,” Bullett said. “There was a lot of games this year where we only had two or three turnovers.”
McNally, who was matched up against Smith in the paint, called him the best big man he has seen this year. “He’s a lot stronger than me, and played a lot better than me. I hope that I can get better and stronger and do a lot better than I did tonight.”
Washington moved on to face the winner of the Huntington-George Washington game on Friday at 5:30 p.m.