CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Poca made plenty of plays late and clamped down on Charleston Catholic down the stretch to secure its fourth straight win Friday night, 49-42.
“We weren’t shooting the ball well and things weren’t going our way. We grit it out and toughed it out,” Dots’ head coach Allen Osborne said. “Our defense was pretty good and Nate (Vance) had some big blocks and a couple big free throws. It’s a great win for us in a good atmosphere. It wasn’t pretty, but we’re going to take it.”
The Dots (13-2) have only lost to defending state champions University and Chapmanville thus far, though they trailed for a good portion of their matchup with the Irish at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Complex.
Charleston Catholic, which entered fresh off last week’s come-from-behind win over Cabell Midland, took a 33-29 lead into the fourth quarter.
“Our goal is to go in up at halftime and we did that. Our goal is to win the third and finish the fourth. We won the third quarter and all we had to do was finish the fourth, but we didn’t finish,” Irish head coach Hunter Moles said. “We have to learn from this and keep going.”
Marshall Pile’s conventional three-point play answered Noah Rittinger’s three-pointer and allowed the Irish (9-4) to lead 36-32 with 6:22 to play.
But Poca outscored Charleston Catholic 17-6 over the final 5:12, starting with a triple from Jackson Toney that brought the Dots back to within one point.
Rittinger’s leaner gave Poca the lead for good at 38-37, and Vance extended it to three with a pair of free throws at the 1:58 mark.
The Irish got back to within one once more when Aiden Satterfield went 2-of-2 at the line, but Rittinger found Vance for a bucket inside and Isaac McKneely got a transition layup to give Poca a 45-40 advantage with 1:07 remaining.
Toney made two free throws to up the advantage to five with 39 seconds left.
“In the fourth quarter, we didn’t live up to to the moment and we played a little too soft,” Moles said. “We weren’t smart enough on certain plays. We tried to make a couple home run shots maybe and we have to get a better shot here and there.”
A trio of three-pointers from Thomas Blaydes in the first quarter helped stake the Irish to a 15-13 lead, and Charleston Catholic took the two-point lead into halftime after both teams managed seven points in the second quarter.
Blaydes began the second half with another triple and Zion Suddeth connected from behind the arc to give the Irish a 28-20 edge early in the third quarter.
Poca methodically worked its way back into the game and got to within 31-27 on Rittinger’s three-pointer.
Rittinger led all players with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting. McKneely scored 11 and Vance narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and nine boards.
“Noah Rittinger has been really good on both ends of the floor the last couple weeks,” Osborne said. “He’s shooting the ball better and he’s guarding. He sees the court well and he’s the guy that kind of gets us going.”
After making only 7-of-21 shots in the opening half, Poca made 10-of-22 over the final two quarters.
The Irish, meanwhile, were just 6-of-21 from the field after halftime.
“You have to get guys back on defense against them,” Osborne said. “A big part of our game plan was to get five guys back, make them play in front of us and keep them off the boards.”
Satterfield’s 13 points were a team-high in defeat, while Blaydes scored 12. Pile chipped in with eight points and a game-best 10 rebounds.