MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When University’s K.J. McClurg popped in a midrange jumper to give the Hawks a 50-37 lead, Morgantown faced what looked to be a nearly insurmountable deficit.
Mohigans’ 6-foot-7 junior Carson Poffenberger had other ideas.
Poffenberger scored 16 of his team-high 27 points from that point forward to lead Morgantown to a 67-65 road victory in a matchup of two of the state’s premier teams.
“He’s come a long way in one year and he’s worked extremely hard,” MHS head coach Dave Tallman said. “We talk about deserving to win and he deserved to win.”
University, which won the first meeting with Morgantown 49-46, had a chance to win, but Kaden Metheny’s 3-pointer fell off the mark as time expired.
Metheny led all players with 32 points in the loss, including 22 on 9-of-14 shooting over an exceptional first half.
“Kaden was in a zone tonight and there was no stopping him. He’s an unbelievable player,” Tallman said. “I coached in the DC Catholic League and he’s as good as I’ve seen.”
Poffenberger answered McClurg’s bucket with a 3-pointer to get the Mohigans to within 10.
Metheny hit a triple later in the third to give the Hawks (9-3) a 55-44 advantage, but Poffenberger accounted for the final seven points of the third quarter to get the Mohigans (9-1) to within four.
Poffenberger first scored on a putback, before converting a layup and then making a 3. He picked up where he left off by scoring the first four points of the fourth to tie the game, and Antonio Rollo’s 3 moments later gave Morgantown its first lead since 27-26 in the second quarter.
“We had a lapse there at the end of the third quarter,” UHS head coach Joe Schmidle said. “We were stuck on 55 points forever. Shots quit going down and we struggled.”
Mac McMillen followed with a triple to make it a 17-0 Mohigans’ run and a 61-55 lead, while Xavier Pryor scored on a drive for a 65-58 Mohigans’ lead with 2:26 to play.
Leading by four, Morgantown missed the front end of 1-and-1s on consecutive occasions and McClurg made two free throws with 36 seconds left to bring UHS to within two.
After Poffenberger went 1-of-2 at the line, Metheny made it a one-point game by making two foul shots with 10 seconds left. Morgantown then turned it over on the inbounds play, giving the Hawks a chance to go ahead. But McClurg’s shot missed the mark and Poffenberger went 1-of-2 again at the line with four seconds left.
“Two really good teams and probably the two best teams in the state of West Virginia that are going to see each other two more times,” Schmidle said.
The Mohigans overcame nine first-quarter points from Metheny to hold a 19-17 lead, and McMillen connected from behind the arc in the second to up the advantage to 25-22.
But Metheny accounted for eight points during a 10-0 Hawks’ run to close the half, which allowed UHS to turn a one-point deficit into a 36-27 lead.
Poffenberger, who made 9-of-10 shots from the field, added a team-high eight rebounds in the win. McMillen made four 3s in a 16-point effort. The Mohigans shot better than 63 percent in the second half as they made 14-of-22 shots.
“It gives our guys confidence more than anything,” Tallman said. “I believe in our guys. I don’t know if they believed in themselves yet, but now they do.”
Mike Maumbe contributed 11 points and eight rebounds in the loss, while McClurg had 10 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.
After making 15-of-30 shots in the first half, the Hawks were held to 40 percent shooting (11-of-27) in the second half.