MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In last Saturday’s Ohio Valley Athletic Conference final, Morgantown suffered an eye-opening 30-point loss to University.
A major problem for the Mohigans in the 74-44 setback was an inability to make shots.
Flash forward to Wednesday night and Morgantown welcomed North Marion in a matchup of teams that entered with three losses.
The Mohigans had no such difficulty scoring against the Huskies as they poured in 49 points over the middle two quarters and made 10 three-pointers to claim a 72-35 victory.
“It was probably a tough night to play Morgantown, because we weren’t real happy,” Mohigans’ head coach Dave Tallman said.
North Marion (18-4) closed the opening quarter on a 6-0 run to close to within 13-11, but it was all Mohigans from that point forward.
Morgantown (16-3) used its fullcourt pressure to force five second-quarter turnovers, and it helped the Mohigans get their offense going in the process.
Alex Rudy and Brooks Gage each hit a pair of three-pointers for MHS during a second quarter that saw the Mohigans pour in 25 points to pull away.
Gage’s second triple of the period upped his team’s lead to 29-16 and was the start of a 12-0 surge that ended with Rudy’s second three of the quarter.
Tariq Miller responded with a triple for the Huskies, but that was their second and final field goal of the quarter.
Half of Morgantown’s 14 field goals in the opening half were threes, while North Marion was limited to six total field goals as it trailed, 38-19.
“Offensively we’re starting to click a little bit and defensively, we’re pretty good,” Tallman said.
Leading 43-24 early in the third, Morgantown scored 19 unanswered points to close the quarter and put to rest any thought of a Huskies’ rally.
Rudy scored seven of those 19 points, while Poland added five and Gage accounted for his fourth and final trey of the night.
“There were a lot of issues Saturday, but we didn’t make any shots. Tonight, we didn’t have a lot of confidence early on and we missed a lot of open shots. Then we went to our bench and Brooks Gage and Alec Poland really lit it up for us and got it going,” Tallman said. “Once they made some shots, Rudy and the other guys got rolling. A lot of it was confidence.”
Rudy led four Morgantown players in double figure scoring with 13 points. Gage added 12, while Poland and Carson Poffenberger poured in 11 apiece. Troy Battle and Max Washington also neared double figures in the win with nine and eight points, respectively.
Murphy scored a team-high 13 points in defeat.
The Huskies finished the regular season with two straight losses after winning 18 of their first 20 games.
“I watched them on film and I have a lot of respect for them,” Tallman said. “Our depth got to them and they wore down. They played with us for a little and they’ll make a run in Double-A.”