HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — St. Joseph Central was the story of last year’s Class A boys basketball postseason as the Irish rode a five seed all the way to a state championship.
The Irish defeated No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 1 Magnolia and No. 2 Wheeling Central (in overtime) to take the title as juniors Deaundra Murphy, John Dawson and Keith Clemons led the way.
“We talked to our kids about just getting there — and seeding does matter,” said head coach Ross Scaggs. “But we thought if we could get (to the state tournament), we were confident enough that if we did what we were supposed to and play the way we knew we were capable that good things could happen. Thankfully, they did.
“We had kids that had played a lot of basketball and they play hard,” he continued. “They just kept their cool and composure. We tried to play a tough schedule so that we would play tough games and hopefully know how to play down the stretch, possession by possession.”
Murphy, though, is the only of those three standout guards to return as Dawson transferred back to Huntington High and Clemons transferred to Wesley Christian in Kentucky.
Murphy averaged around 18 points a year ago for the Irish.
“He’s grown a little bit, worked at it extremely hard and we’re looking for great things from him,” Scaggs said of Murphy. “He’s going to be our leader and we’re talking to him about not only his scoring this year, but making the players around him better – and he’s doing that.”
With Clemons and Dawson gone, it also means an even bigger role for senior John Morrison who made the all-tournament team as well, coming off of the bench. Morrison was averaging just four points per game going into the state tournament, but had a breakthrough effort of 17 points (7 of 9 shooting) in the semifinals against Magnolia and then scored 10 points in the championship win over Wheeling Central.
“It was one of those deal where I don’t know if I can explain it or not. He caught fire at the right time and is a very confident player who is very quick,” Scaggs said. “He got on a roll and just did a superb job. Obviously that has given him confidence also for this coming year.”
A few of the other contributors this season for the Irish include sophomore point guard Garrick Hopkins, junior Isaac Bias and senior Owen Huffman.
“We’re going to be rather thin, but we’re working on some other guys to get some minutes from them,” Scaggs said. “We’ll be about the same kind of team. We won’t be as big as we were last year, but we’re going to be a pretty good shooting team and we’ll play up tempo. We’re still confident and we still think we have a good chance.”
The Irish are playing out of an ultra-competitive Region 4 in Class A, which features four teams that made the state tournament a year ago, but re-classification has put them together. Parkersburg Catholic, Huntington St. Joe and Tug Valley all made the Class A tournament a year ago, while Ravenswood made the tournament as a AA member in 2016.
“It is loaded,” Scaggs said. “We obviously have Tug Valley (in our section), Tolsia, Buffalo and the other schools will also present a challenge. We have our work cut out for us. We’ve beefed up our schedule, trying to get ready for (the postseason), so that when the time comes, we’ll be in situations where we are prepared.”