Buckhannon-Upshur adds new flavor to Class AAA title mix

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — The girls basketball program at Buckhannon-Upshur has been on the rise.

The Buccaneers (17-3) have made back-to-back state tournament appearances as the No. 8 seed in 2015 and the No. 7 seed last year. This season, Buckhannon has experienced a breakthrough with a veteran team.

The No. 3 Buccaneers entered last week with seven wins over teams ranked among the top 16 in the MetroNews Power Index. Included on that list are victories over No. 6 South Charleston, No. 13 Morgantown and No. 12 Greenbrier East, as well as traditional Class AA powers Fairmont Senior and North Marion.

That state tournament experience from the last two years has helped build a confidence with this year’s team.

“You have to want more,” said head coach Jeremy Maxwell. “Making it to the state tournament is good – and our girls basketball program in the past has not been one of the top ones. So, making it there was good two years ago and a higher seed last year was okay, but it got to a point where you want more.

“Our kids started working the next week,” Maxwell said. “Now, they believe (they can contend for a title). You start knocking off those perennial programs, start looking at the list of the teams that we’ve beaten and played and it’s kind of surreal. But it’s also real. We are in the mix and AAA has a lot of parity. I think it’s anyone’s game.”

It was a big second half comeback in a recent win over three-time defending Class AAA state champion Morgantown that Maxwell hopes will spur his team down the stretch. Buckhannon-Upshur won that game 53-48 in overtime, despite not getting a made field goal for the first 11 minutes of the contest.

“We were down 14-2 after one quarter,” Maxwell said. “They’re a great team and a very good defensive team, so that 12 points felt more like 25 or 30 points. But our girls have a lot of heart and that’s one thing that champions need. We just continued to battle back, had a Hail Mary throw at the end (of regulation), got a shot to go down and were able to pull it out in overtime.”

It’s a veteran Buccaneers team with three seniors and four juniors on the roster.

“I actually started coaching these girls in middle school,” Maxwell said. “This is my sixth year straight coaching them – and sometimes that good, sometimes that’s bad. But in our case, we’ve had great, hard-working players and parents who have been supportive.”

Junior Hanna McClung is the team’s leading scorer for the second straight season.

“Her shot is dead-on,” Maxwell said. “She’s smart, knows the game and one of the hardest working people that I’ve ever been around. She’s a blessing to have and almost like another coach out there.”

The scoring and the depth is there for this Buckhannon-Upshur team. But It’s a smaller team that’s had to adjust in order to effectively defend and rebound.

“If we can press our defense out, use our speed and athleticism to our advantage, we can get some easy buckets off of turnovers,” Maxwell said. “That helps us to not have to worry as much about our disadvantage under the basket.”

Buckhannon is now in a sectional with Morgantown, University and Preston. All of those teams are ranked among the top 12 Class AAA schools in the most recent power index.

“We want a chance to host sectionals,” Maxwell said. “Obviously it’s a big challenge for us and something different than what we’re used to. But you still have to win games and do what you need to do.”

And Maxwell believes the schedule has his team prepared.

“We haven’t shied away from our schedule,” Maxwell said. “In Class AAA, we’ve already played six or seven top 10 teams. We want to know where we are and where we need to be. We’ve done a pretty good job so far, but there are still a lot of things that we can get better at. We’re excited and ready to hopefully make a run and put Buckhannon-Upshur on the map. It’s not a name that you talk about too much in girls basketball.”