Davis comes alive in second half as Morgantown beats GW, 56-45

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown senior Brody Davis scored all of his game-high 16 points in the second half to lead the Mohigans to their 20th win of the season, 56-45 over George Washington. The game featured the last two Class AAAA state champions and the top two teams in the latest edition of the MetroNews Power Index.

After foul trouble sidelined Davis in the first half, he scored seven consecutive points in the fourth quarter to help the Mohigans create some distance from the Patriots.

“He took two bad fouls. And good players can’t do that. And he knows that,” said Morgantown head coach Dave Tallman. “So he adjusted. In the second half I told him, ‘You are being hesitant. You’ve got to score. You’ve got to be our guy.’ So he took over the game.”

Morgantown (20-2) never trailed in the contest and they held leads of six, eight and seven points respectively through the first three quarters. The Mohigans’ first 18 points in the game were all scored on three-point field goals.

“The game was decided in the first two minutes,” said George Washington head coach Rick Greene. “I think they got four or five wide-open looks at 3’s. And we didn’t have anybody even close. Even if they don’t have [Sharron] Young, who is a great player, that’s a great basketball team and they are very well-coached. When they get that lead, it is just hard.”

Davis’ personal 7-0 run in the fourth quarter gave Morgantown a 41-32 lead with 5:30 to play. However, the Patriots scored on three consecutive possessions midway through the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Dawson Lunsford with three minutes left trimmed the GW deficit to four points at 43-39.

After a Morgantown timeout, the Mohigans scored six points on their next three possessions to extend their lead back up to ten points.

“We’ve got to do a better job of playing with the lead,” Tallman said. “It helps when Sharron Young is out there. But right now, I thought we hung in there. We had a couple of adjustments to do. We were getting tired and lazy on defense. I thought once we kind of fixed those and strapped up a little bit, we stopped them, rebounded it and got some easy ones.”

Morgantown took the court for the sixth consecutive game without their leading scorer, junior guard Sharron Young. Tallman is hopeful that Young may be able to return next week from his right hand injury.

Cam Danser scored ten points for the Mohigans while Garrison Kisner and Izzy Everett added nine points each.

“Izzy is an awesome kid. He is a 4.0 kid. He lives in the gym. He is quiet. He’s just a special human being. He kind of waited his turn. He is very aggressive,” Tallman said. “When Sharron does come back, I think we are going to put five guys out there that are averaging double figures.”

Morgantown’s regular season is complete. The defending state champions will host John Marshall in the sectional semifinal round on Tuesday.

“Any time you beat a team like that, it is a good win,” Tallman said. “There’s a chance we could see them down the road. But as I told my guys in the locker room, we are not worried about anything like that. We are worried about playing John Marshall Tuesday.”

Brendan Hoffman and Dawson Lunsford led the Patriots with 13 points each. George Washington (18-3) will face another tough test Saturday when they conclude their regular season against Parkersburg South.

“We see some things we have to get better at, obviously. That’s why you play these games. I am not ever happy when you lose. But if nothing else, in the big picture, this is a better game to play than go play someone and win by 25,” Greene said.





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