MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — University produced several scoring runs in the second half of Thursday’s matchup against crosstown rival Morgantown to keep pressure on the Mohigans for the final 16 minutes of the game.
However, MHS sophomore guard Kayli Kellogg and her teammates always seemed to have an answer as Morgantown held on to defeat University, 66-62.
Kellogg led all scorers with 38 points. She connected on seven three-point field goals in the first half and two more after halftime to lead MHS to a regular season sweep over University.
“She’s letting the game come to her. That’s what we talked about. She found the zone and she was in the zone. We’re never ever telling Kayli Kellogg not to take any shots. If she has open shots, she is taking the shot. She always has the green light,” Morgantown head coach John Fowkes said.
“She is if not the best player in the state, she is top two.”
“That’s my preparation,” Kellogg said. “I put in a lot of work for these moments. My preparation and my teammates finding me and getting me the ball, I give credit to them.”
Neither team led by more than eight points in the highly-competitive contest. After a first quarter with five lead changes, University led 20-18. However, Morgantown used a 14-3 run late in the second quarter to take a 34-30 halftime lead.
The Mohigans extended their lead to six points at 52-46 through three quarters. The Hawks crept within three points three different times in the fourth quarter but they were unable to wrestle the lead away.
“Basketball is a game of runs and we knew that coming in,” Kellogg said. “Every time we went on a run, they would come back. We just knew we had to settle down and get quality looks and defend.”
“Our kids trust the coaches. That’s huge. They let us coach them. I called some timeouts in the fourth quarter just to set the defense and I think that helped us. We had some kids come off the bench that helped us defensively in [Carper] Messerly and [Brenna] Nelson. And then Tatum [DeVries’] shot wasn’t going but she stayed focused on the defensive end,” Fowkes said.
“Give a lot of credit to the Hawks. They played really well tonight.”
Sadaya Jones scored 11 points for the Mohigans (10-2). Hannah Stemple led UHS (6-5) with 20 points. Bri Fox scored 16 points and Lexi Simpson added 14.
After a 15-day break from games due to weather earlier this month, Morgantown has defeated three of the state’s top Class AAAA teams in a six-day span. The Mohigans also defeated Parkersburg and Wheeling Park over the last week.
“They showed me that we have what is takes to compete in Class AAAA this year,” Fowkes said. “If we are fortunate enough to get down to Charleston this year, I think we can make a run at it. We’re youthful but we are hungry and these kids come to practice hard every day. Those two weeks we had off before we played these three games, the kids just stuck with it.”
“We’ve been really resilient and we’ve been going at it in practice pretty hard,” Kellogg said. “Honestly, we were about to kill each other. It was just our chemistry and how we come together. That’s what propelled us to these wins after a long break.”