CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Woodrow Wilson girls basketball coach Brian Nabors considers his team to be among the most resilient in the state.
In Wednesday’s Class AAA quarterfinal against No. 7 Morgantown, the Flying Eagles needed every bit of fight to work their way past the Mohigans, 44-37.
“For 32 minutes, we had no quit,” Nabors said. “We had some adversity, but stayed the course and continued to fight and be the resilient team we’ve been the last few weeks.”
Defense was the calling card for second-seeded Woodrow Wilson, which improved to 20-5 and will face the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal between Greenbrier East-Martinsburg.
The Flying Eagles held Morgantown (14-12) to less than 30 percent shooting from the field, including 2-of-12 in the fourth quarter when the game was in the balance.
“Their ball pressure was really good and they denied the next pass really well,” Morgantown head coach Jason White said. “Typically, we want to attack ball pressure, but they were able to contain us with theirs and they did a nice job of helping. They collapsed so well.”
An 8-0 run over the first 4:10 of the fourth made all the difference as Beckley turned a 30-28 deficit into a six-point lead.
Keanti Thompson got the spurt started with a conventional three-point play and Cloey Frantz followed with a three-pointer. Two free throws from Liz Cadle upped the lead to 36-30 with 3:50 left, and Morgantown never got closer than four the rest of the way.
“The 3-2 zone they played was very tough,” Nabors said. “They packed it in and knew we wanted to go inside. We had to depend on our guards to attack the zone and not settle for outside shots, but we also tod them if they had a shot they had to take it.”
Neither team held a lead of more than three points throughout the first half until Cadle scored the final five points to break a 17-all tie and send her team into the break leading by five.
“I just read the defense and tried to take what they gave me,” Cadle said.
But the Mohigans got six points in the third quarter from Cat Wassick, five from Kaitlyn Ammons and limited Beckley to 2-of-8 shooting to take a two-point lead into the fourth.
“I was really proud of the way we started the second half,” White said. “We answered and gave ourselves a shot.”
Cadle led all players with 20 points and Victoria Staunton added 10 rebounds in the win.
Ammons had 16 points and 11 rebounds for MHS, while Wassick also registered a double double of 12 points and 11 boards.