CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Morgantown won its third straight girls basketball state championship on Saturday night, winning a physical battle over Huntington 61-56.
“It’s unbelievable to be able to win it three times in a row with the best girls in the world,” said Morgantown senior Sydney Holloway. “It’s the best feeling in the world. I have no words, I’m just going to miss them incredibly so much. For the younger girls, I want them just to focus and listen to Coach White.”
The two teams combined for 42 fouls as the top seed Morgantown went 33 of 40 from the free throw line to Huntington’s 9 of 19. The game featured aggressive play on both sides from start to finish.
“It hurts,” said Morgantown’s Lydia Adrian. “We’re just glad that we don’t have to play tomorrow. There’s a reason why (Huntington) is the team that we’ve had our eye on all season because we respect them and we know how good they are.”
With an up-tempo first half – and both teams getting into foul trouble – Huntington’s Lexi Sheffield hit a 3 as time expired in the second quarter, sending the two teams to the locker room tied at 26-26.
Huntington’s Jordyn Dawson played only five minutes in the first half, while Morgantown’s Sydney Holloway, Paige Poffenberger and Adrian all missed significant minutes in the first half – all due to foul trouble.
For Morgantown, Aliyssa Neal, Fallon Nicholson and Courtney Quinn all stepped up in the second quarter to get the Mohigans into the second half. Quinn finished the game with seven rebounds.
“Each of those kids at different points of the season have been in important games at big times and stepped up for us,” said Morgantown coach Jason White. “It’s not a lack of confidence, we knew that they could do it.
“It was just the lack of experience in this atmosphere on a state championship stage,” he continued. “I thought they did a pretty good job of handling their nerves and doing what they do. They bought us time – they got us to the half in a time game.”
The Mohigans (25-1) opened up the second half on a 7-0 run to open up a 33-26 lead at the 4:36 mark of the third quarter. Morgantown then took a 41-37 lead into the fourth.
A Jordyn Dawson bucket with 3:53 remaining gave No. 2 Huntington (25-2) a 47-45 lead. But Morgantown quickly answered with an 8-0 run over the next minute and a half, including a Holloway layup-and-one with 2:18 to go, putting the Mohigans up 53-47.
“We always say that big and-one plays, we get extremely hyped,” Holloway said, who let out a yell after converting the bucket. “I might have gone a little overboard (on my reaction). But I just looked around and said ‘Let’s go, girls. We’ve got this.’ It just gave me the biggest motivation.”
Huntington’s pressure forced 27 Morgantown turnovers, but the Highlanders only outscored Morgantown in points off of turnovers 18-9.
“That’s the most athletic press that we’ve faced all year, for sure,” Poffenberger said. “It’s hard to rep that before you come into the game. It’s something we had to get ready to go against on the fly and during the game and adjust.
“But once our nerves calmed down and after we had a chance to see the press a couple of times, we did a better job attacking it,” she continued. “At the end we sort of started to panic again for a few possessions. But as soon as we got ourselves collected, we were fine.”
Holloway led Morgantown with 25 points and Paige Poffenberger scored 15 points for the Mohigans. Huntington was led by Dazha Congleton’s 25 points, while Dawson added 19. The Mohigans out-rebounded Huntington 52-32.
Dawson and Congleton were both named to the all-tournament team for Huntington, while Holloway, Rachel Laskody, Poffenberger and Adrian all made the all-tournament team for Morgantown. Parkersburg South’s Anna Hayton and George Washington’s Shi Banks were the other two players named to the team.
It’s Morgantown’s ninth girls basketball title overall as the Mohigans improved to 9-4 all-time in title games.
The game will air on TV on Root Sports Monday night (March 14) at 9 p.m. The complete broadcast can also be found online, here.
Watch players and coaches react in postgame: