Morgantown fights back in fourth quarter to knock off Robert C. Byrd, 56-44

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — After watching his team fall behind by seven and be outrebounded by six in the opening half of Thursday’s game at Robert C. Byrd, Morgantown coach Dave Tallman challenged the Mohigans at the break.

“This isn’t a cut on anybody, but I think in the other team’s scouting report, they always think we have a little softness to us,” Tallman said. “In the first half, they took it to us and we kind of backed down. At halftime, I didn’t yell or anything. I just told them, ‘When’s enough enough? We have all this talent. When are we going to show people that we’re tough?’”

Tallman got his answer in the second half, with Morgantown rallying from a 40-29 deficit by outscoring RCB 27-4 the rest of the way to hand the Eagles their first loss in 28 games, 56-44.

After closing the deficit to 42-36 through three quarters, Morgantown (7-1) prevented RCB from scoring in the fourth quarter until Tommy Hawkins’ putback with 48 seconds left. All that did was cut the Mohigans’ lead to 10 points as they’d taken complete control a few minutes earlier.

“I saw us getting tired midway through the third quarter. I told the kids that’s my fault,” Eagles’ coach Bill Bennett said. “I didn’t do a very good job with the rotations early in the game. I always tell guys I want to take you out so you’re fresh in the fourth quarter and tonight I didn’t do a good job with that. I could see us running out of gas.”

Luke Bechtel put MHS on top for good at 43-42 with a three-pointer, and after he made a pair of free throws with 3:36 remaining, the Mohigans led by four.

When ShaRon Young scored on a putback, it put the Eagles (6-1) in a six-point hole with 3:07 left and Bennett called timeout.

But it did little to fix RCB’s issues, and Alec Poland made all four of his free-throw attempts to continue adding to Morgantown’s lead.

“I should have emphasized more at that 3-minute mark when we had that timeout for them to take the ball to the basket,” Bennett said. “We weren’t making threes anyway so when you take those late in the game you just end up taking yourselves out of the game. I should have told them if we attack the basket and get the clock stopped, we have a chance.”

Morgantown’s Luke Bechtel looks to deny Robert C. Byrd’s Bryson Lucas the basketball. Photo by Greg Carey/WVMetroNews.com

RCB held a 17-16 lead after one quarter, but quickly upped its advantage to 10 as Bryson Lucas made three three-pointers over the first 1:25 of the second quarter.

The Mohigans never got closer than five the rest of the opening half, but capitalized on an Eagles’ turnover in the final seconds to score on Xavier Pryor’s layup and trail 32-25.

Lucas was dictating the game with 19 points and nine rebounds over the first two quarters, but he was held to six points in the second half.

“Luke Bechtel did an outstanding job on Bryson Lucas in the second half,” Tallman said. “Bryson, I think, is the best player I’ve seen all year in the state and Luke did a really good job on him.”

Bechtel’s layup on a goaltending call began the Mohigans’ 7-2 surge to end the third quarter, which trimmed an 11-point deficit to six. Pryor’s layup and Poland’s triple were where Morgantown’s other points came from.

Morgantown held a 23-10 rebounding advantage in the second half to win the battle of the boards, 37-33.

Bechtel led the Mohigans with 14 points and nine rebounds, while Pryor scored 12 and Poland added 10. Brooks Gage also had nine rebounds for MHS.

Outside of Lucas, who finished with 25 points and 16 boards, RCB made only 9-of-35 shots.

The win allowed Morgantown to even the regular season series after the Eagles beat the Mohigans 69-56 on March 13 in Morgantown.

“People would say that it’s a revenge game, but this game wasn’t even on the schedule,” Tallman said. “We scrimmaged each other and now we played twice and it’s been the best battles we’ve had. I really give them a lot of credit. They didn’t have to take this game. They had all the bragging rights and 28 wins in a row.”





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