CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Poca stayed unbeaten on the year with a 51-31 dominating win over eight-seed Ravenswood in Thursday night’s Class AA quarterfinal.
After trailing by seven early, the Dots outscored the Red Devils 42-15 the rest of the way.
“It was a little shaky start for us,” said Poca coach Allen Osborne. “We weren’t anticipating them to play that fast. But after the first quarter, we really settled down and played great defensively. We made them earn everything they got. We ran our offense, got some good looks and took care of the ball. I’m very pleased.”
Ravenswood (17-7) jumped out to early leads of 8-3 and then 16-9 in the first quarter behind Riley Heatherington’s eight points. Poca (25-0) responded, though, with a 14-0 run to end the half while holding the Red Devils without a point in the second quarter.
“They came out shooting the ball well,” said Poca senior Noah Frampton. “We just talked it over and knew we had to play better defense. We started helping more and contesting shots. They didn’t score the second quarter and we could definitely see their confidence start to drop.”
The Dots led at the break 23-16 as Elijah Cuffee scored eight points and Noah Frampton added seven.
Poca also scored the first nine points of the second half, extending the lead to 32-16 and its overall run to 23-0. The Red Devils didn’t score over a nearly 13-minute stretch as Poca led 39-20 after three quarters.
“It was tough – and they made it that way,” said Ravenswood coach Mick Price. “Poca is really good, well coached and their kids play hard. They’re so long inside and they really gave us a lot of problems and took away a lot of shooting sets that we had.”
“To get back to the state tournament was a big deal for us,” Price continued. “We have had a couple of pretty bad seasons, which included the year after we won the 2009 state championship — we were 5-17 (the next year). These guys have helped get us back to the state tournament and we’ve got a rather young team. Hopefully we saw what it takes to be a champion, because Poca is championship material – as good as we’ve played.”
Ravenswood was held to just 26.8 percent from the floor and only 3 of 21 from beyond the arc.
As for the last time Price saw a defense as good as Poca’s was on Thursday?
“Probably Wayne in football,” Price joked. “They have no weaknesses. They’re very, very good.”
Noah Frampton finished 18 points for the Dots in the win, while Elijah Cuffee scored 10, Luke Frampton and Matt Chandler both added eight points apiece as well.
Heatherington finished with 12 points for Ravenswood in the loss. The Dots move on to face Thursday night’s winner between No. 4 Westside and No. 5 Robert C. Byrd.
“Westside hasn’t lost a game to a Class AA team and Robert C. Byrd made the finals last year with all-state players back,” Osborne said. “They’re two really good basketball teams and it will take a monumental effort to beat them. I’m anxious to see that game, it’s going to be a war. I hope they wear each other out.”
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