CHARLESTON, W.Va. – No. 2 Chapmanville Regional secured its spot in Championship Saturday’s Class AA title game, pulling away in the second half to beat No. 6 Winfield 66-48.
“I think our guys dug in and we found out a little bit about ourselves today,” said Chapmanville coach Brad Napier. “Winfield was ready. They were prepared and they did a heck of a job shutting us down in the first half. We struggled to get going – it wasn’t us, it was them playing a heck of a defensive game.”
Last year’s state runner-up, Chapmanville (26-1) broke open a 25-25 game at the half with a 12-0 run in the third quarter, pushing its lead out to 39-28.
After Winfield closed to within five in the fourth quarter, 53-48, Chapmanville scored the game’s final 13 points in the last 2:17.
Drew Williamson, who averages 17 points per game, led the way for the Tigers, scoring 33 points on 10 of 18 shooting.
“He got in a little bit of a flow and pretty much put us on his back,” Napier said. “He carried us I thought offensively for most of the game. He was just phenomenal hitting shots.
“Drew is very capable of doing that, we just haven’t needed him or asked him to do that a lot this year,” he continued. “In the second half today we put the ball in his hands a lot in the second half and tried to do a lot of isolations for him.”
Williamson finished 4 of 8 from 3 in the win as well.
“It was just one of those days,” Williamson said. “I woke up early this morning and got my breakfast. I was just ready to go today.”
The first half featured a pair of runs as well, with Winfield scoring 12 straight points for an early 12-4 lead. The Tigers answered with a 10-2 run to tie the game at 14-14 heading into the second quarter.
Chapmanville played a significant portion of the first half without its 6-foot-9 inside presence Obinna Anochili-Killen who had two early fouls. He finished the game with eight points and eight critical blocks.
“He just changes the game and takes so much away from other teams in terms of layups – he erases points off the board for the other team,” Napier said. “It seems like every time he gets a block, we usually score on the other end.”
Winfield (19-8) was led by Andrew Huff who scored 13 points and Braeden McGrew who totaled 12 points and six assists.
“We came out and did almost everything we wanted to do, especially in the first half,” said Winfield coach Chris Stephens. “Chapmanville just has so many weapons and (Drew) Williamson is a tough, tough player. Our kids battled. Chapmanville was just a better team today, but that does not fault our kids’ effort, I thought it was outstanding.”
The Tigers move on to face either Fairmont Senior or Philip Barbour in the Class AA title game at noon on Saturday.
Chapmanville last year held a 10-point second half lead in the title game against Fairmont Senior before the Polar Bears stormed back to win their second straight championship, 59-54.
“It’s motivated us, but these kids have also been motivated since they were sophomores,” Napier said. “They’ve always hated losing and they have confidence in themselves – they have confidence in each other. Their goal was to get back here and be ready to play on Saturday. We’ve made step one of that.”
MetroNews will have a full HD-video broadcast of the game at the MetroNews Channel of WVMetroNews.com.
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