CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It took Wheeling Central a couple minutes into each half to find its footing Tuesday in a Class AA quarterfinal against No. 8 Philip Barbour.
When the Maroon Knights did, they displayed whey they’re the top seed.
Behind 37 points from Kaitlyn Blake and better than 53 percent shooting as a team, Central raced past the Colts, 78-48, at the Charleston Coliseum.
Philip Barbour (14-9) scored the first four points, causing Central head coach Roberta Olejasz to call an early timeout so she could attempt to up the energy from her group, which was sloppy against the Colts’ full court pressure early on.
“The first part was we had to get into our press breaker, which we weren’t. We were just hurrying to take the ball out of bounds,” Olejasz said. “But most of the timeout was about defense. Wheeling Central is a program about defensive effort and we weren’t putting forth the correct amount of defensive effort at that time.”
The move worked out and Blake accounted for seven straight points out of the timeout to give her team the lead for good.
Blake finished with 15 first-quarter points to account for half of her team’s total and match the Colts’ offensive output through 8 minutes. Central (22-2) scored 18 paint points in the opening frame and made 12-of-18 shots, getting seven points from Addie Payton and five from Seneca Haller to go with Blake’s dominance.
“These girls all really like each other. They enjoy each other and enjoy being together,” Olejasz said. “When you have a group like that, it’s a joy to coach.”
An Erin Maxwell jumper 5:45 halftime made it a 20-point margin for the first time at 36-16, and Central continued to excel offensively, getting six points from Blake that frame, which Heller closed by scoring five points over the final 1:44 to help the Colts face a 49-26 halftime deficit.
The Maroon Knights went to halftime shooting 20 for 32. Blake made 9-of-10 shots to start and missed only two of 11 field-goal attempts through two quarters.
The Colts, meanwhile, got 11 points and six rebounds from 6-footer Izzy Knotts in the opening half and made a respectable nine field goals, but had 18 turnovers that led to 27 Central points.
“I’m used to going against girls that are a lot bigger than me and in practice, I usually go against two or three, so it’s always a battle,” Blake said.
Still, PBHS displayed the resiliency that allowed the Colts to turn their season around after a 1-5 start, and ran off seven straight points to start the second half. That stretch featured a second-chance basket from Taitem Jeffries and five straight points from Knotts that helped her team get back to within striking distance.
While Central got its lead back to 18 not long after, a Finley Carpenter three-pointer just before the midway point of the quarter trimmed the Maroon Knights’ deficit to 54-39, and they settled for a 61-47 lead through three quarters.
Blake was again a major factor in that period, scoring all but two of her team’s 12 points, including a layup for a 19-point lead late in the frame, before Carpenter’s triple and a Knotts layup made it a 14-point game.
In the fourth quarter, the Maroon Knights played the type of defense Olejasz aspires to see on a consistent basis, holding the Colts to one point and 0-for-10 shooting.
Central also made 9-of-12 free throws in the final frame to continue expanding its lead in what amounted to a 17-1 advantage that period.
“Basketball is a game of runs. We just had to figure out how to adjust to their bigs,” Olejasz said. “They were out-rebounding us for a while. We had to get more desire and effort to get those boards and we got there.”
Blake’s game-high point total came on 15-for-19 shooting and she made all seven of her free throws while adding a team-high 10 rebounds.
“She has good moves underneath the basket. She runs the floor and can hit the midrange jumper,” Colts’ head coach Rick Mouser said. “She’s a really good player.”
Heller added 17 points and six steals and Payton totaled nine points, to go with game highs of 11 assists and seven steals.
“Kaitlyn builds a lot of momentum for us, but when we hit shots from the perimeter it helps the team come together and play really well,” Payton said.
Haley Severns added six steals in the win.
Knotts led PB with 22 points, 15 rebounds, four steals and a pair of blocks.
“Izzy just does Izzy things. She plays harder than anybody out there all the time,” Mouser said. “She wants to win all the time.”
Carpenter scored 11 and made all but two of her team’s five threes. The Colts turned it over 30 times.