While watching the Wheeling Park/South Charleston semi-final round game from the state tournament in Charleston Friday night, the realization hit me that if the Patriots win, we will have 1 vs. 2 matchups in all six state championship basketball games this year.
The top seeds and defending champs won all three games last week during the girls tournament as North Marion, Summers County and St. Joe all repeated. Each team knocked off the #2 seed in the title game.
This week for the boys tournament, championship showdowns are set in AA between top seed Wyoming East and #2 seed Oak Hill and in Class-A between #1 seed Charleston Catholic and #2 seed Parkersburg Catholic.
Top seed Logan has moved to the title game in AAA as well. Wheeling Park is the #2 seed.
Three AAA teams played their way back into the state tournament after losing sectional final games
—-WVU recruit Noah Cottrill put on a show Friday night in the earlier AAA semi-final round game as he scored 36 points in a come from behing Logan win over Capital. Logan trailed almost the entire contest before Cottrill hit a three from the top of the key late in the game. Cottrill had struggled a bit during Logan’s first round win over Hedgesville earlier in the tournament. Cottrill now will have an opportunity to help bring the state championship back to Logan Saturday night. Major credit also goes to Paul Herbert Williamson of Logan who scored 20 points in the second half of the Logan win over Capital.
—-In the Single-A game Saturday afternoon, Charleston Catholic will be making a 6th consecutive appearance in the state title game. The Irish knocked out a Wheeling Central team that had won the previous two small school state championships.
—-A big comeback by Wyoming East in the semi-finals vs. Tug Valley put the Warriors back into the AA title game for the fourth consecutive season. The Warriors trailed by five with 1:17 to play before Chase Morgan hit a three to make it 63-61 with less than a minute to go. An Evan Muscari steal and lay-in tied the game at 63 with :40 remaining. After a Tug Valley miss from the foul line, Morgan hit two free throws with ten seconds to go. Then Muscari capped a 9-0 run to end the game with a pair of free throws making the final 67-63 Wyoming East. The Warriors will meet Oak Hill for the fourth time this season Saturday in the championship game. Wyoming East swept the three previous games.