CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Class A defending state champion and top seed Magnolia comfortably advanced into Friday’s semifinals with a 72-43 win over No. 8 Fayetteville on Thursday.
“We were a little leery of Fayetteville coming in with 19 wins, I know they based the eight seed on strength of schedule,” said Magnolia coach Dave Tallman. “But you never know whether they’re a lot better than their seeding was.
“We prepared very hard for them,” he continued. “They’re a bunch of juniors and I told their coach how huge that was just to get to the state tournament this year. We’re going to lose nine seniors and they’re going to turn around and have everybody back.
Magnolia (22-2) set the tone from the beginning, outscoring Fayetteville 23-4 in the first quarter. The Blue Eagles scored 22 points off of 19 forced turnovers on the day.
“To jump out 23-4 in the first quarter and turn them over, we were very pleased, it turned into easy baskets,” Tallman said. “I have to give Preston Boswell credit because he brings the energy, which brings the energy of everyone else on our team up.”
Boswell finished with 28 on 11 of 21 shooting, four rebounds, two assists and six steals.
“My teammates do a great job of rebounding and they kick it up well,” Boswell said. “Once I see they have it, I take off and they get it up to me. Once we get some buckets, we really get excited and start playing really hard.”
The Blue Eagles won the rebounding battle 41-28 (17-8 in offensive boards) and outscored the Pirates 44-18 with points in the paint.
“That was very impressive,” Tallman said. “We’re trying to get Kyle (Ritz) and Mitch (Winters) more involved, but I thought Fayetteville defended us in the post pretty well.”
Winters scored nine points with 11 rebounds on Thursday, while Ritz added six points, four rebounds and three steals.
Fayetteville (19-3) was led by Ricky Meadows who finished with 10 points.
Magnolia moves on to face the winner of Notre Dame and St. Joe in Friday night’s semifinal at 7:15 p.m.
Watch players and coaches react in postgame: