MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Alec Poland drilled five triples and led Morgantown with 21 points as the Mohigans knocked off city rival University, 76-65 Tuesday night at MHS. The Mohigans never trailed in the contest and fought off a third quarter push from the Hawks to collect their sixth win of the season.
“I am not real happy with our defense,” said Morgantown head coach Dave Tallman. “I thought we had a good game plan and I felt like our guys just need to keep people in front. We were getting beat off the ball too easily. Offensively, we didn’t make any shots in the first half. But I am not worried about that because we have weapons everywhere.”
Morgantown quickly jumped out to a six-point lead in the first two minutes and they were up 16-7 at the end of the first quarter.
“I don’t think we did anything we were supposed to do in the first quarter,” said University head coach Joe Schmidle. “We are young and nerves probably got the best of us. Once we settled down, the kids played a pretty decent ball game.”
The Hawks responded well in the second stanza, cutting their deficit to 34-31 at halftime. UHS drew even at 37-37 early in the third quarter but Morgantown rebuilt a nine-point lead at the end of three, 58-49.
Four Mohigans (6-1) scored in double digits. Carson Poffenberger scored 16, Brooks Gage added 14 and freshman Sharron Young chipped in with a dozen. Tallman credited Xavier Pryor’s distribution on the offensive end of the floor.
“I thought Xavier Pryor was amazing tonight,” Tallman said. “He continues to really impress this year.
“We’ve got an experienced team and I think that if we can just get stops and hold them to one shot, the game plan will be real simple for us this year.”
Blake Barkley led University (5-1) with 23 points. TT Brooks scored 11 and Ryan Niceler added 10.
Round two in this rivalry is set to be played on Bakers Ridge on April 11.