CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Class A No. 2 Tucker County has aspirations of an extended stay in Charleston this week.
While the Mountain Lions assured themselves of at least one more game at the state tournament with Thursday’s 59-47 victory against No. 7 Magnolia, TCHS didn’t play at or near the level head coach Daniel Helmick desires.
The two teams met less than two months ago in the regular season, and Tucker won that matchup in far more convincing fashion, 81-51.
“Magnolia played harder than us,” Helmick said. “We played them earlier and jumped on them at their place.
“I’m not happy with our effort at all, but give them credit. We thought it was going to be easy.”
The Blue Eagles (16-9) built hope early, making half of their 10 field-goal attempts in the opening quarter and utilizing seven points in the frame from Dubale Greathouse to play the Mountain Lions even at 15-all.
Magnolia looked much the same for a large portion of the second quarter and got consecutive three-pointers from Kingston Christen and Greathouse to turn a two-point deficit into a 21-17 lead.
But TCHS (20-2) took control over the final 4 minutes of the opening half starting with a Garrett Wilfong jumper that gave him six straight points for the Mountain Lions and tied the game at 23.
That was early into what amounted to a 15-0 run that also featured triples from Mikey Mitchell and Ethan Cummings, while Trevan Bonner scored inside just before halftime to leave MHS facing a 34-23 deficit at the intermission.
“We gave it everything we could give. We had a 21-17 lead and four 50-50 calls didn’t go our way. They were game-changers,” MHS head coach Dave Tallman said. “Hats off to Tucker. They’re a great basketball team. We came in here to win it. There has not been an upset in this state tournament. We knew the goal was extremely high, but I’m proud of these young men.”
While Greathouse led all players with 10 first-half points, four Tucker players had at least five points at that stage.
“We were getting overplayed and still haven’t ran what we were trying to run,” Helmick said. “Last year, we were older. We have a lot of kids that it’s their first time down here. Hopefully they’ll settle in after this game.”
Bonner scored five points during a 7-0 Mountain Lions’ spurt in the third, and that period concluded with Tucker on top, 48-34.
The Blue Eagles didn’t go down without a fight. They scored the first five points of the fourth to cut the deficit to nine, then answered a Sam Marks triple with an 8-3 spurt that featured threes from Christen and Noah Hood, the latter of which trimmed the Tucker advantage to 54-47 with 4:19 remaining.
But the Blue Eagles never scored again, and Marks’ trey with 1:40 left helped Tucker avoid more tense moments down the stretch.
The Mountain Lions’ size and aggressiveness were major factors in the outcome and helped lead to a 42-19 rebounding advantage, including 19-4 on the offensive end.
“We preach rebounding. We work on it and talk about it all the time. That’s one of the games we try to win within the game,” Helmick said. “But I want to give them total credit. Magnolia made us uncomfortable and that really shocked me.”
Bonner scored a team-high 15 points and Mitchell added 11.
Marks and Wilfong scored eight apiece, while the latter led all players with 13 rebounds before leaving the game for good with 3:20 remaining due to an ankle injury.
The 6-foot-3 Wilfong suffered the same injury one year ago at the same stage in the state tournament.
“It’s just my luck that happens two years in a row,” Wilfong said, “but I’ll be back.”
Tucker scored 32 paint points to Magnolia’s 18.
“Their guards are so good, so you have to give up something,” Tallman said. “We went into it thinking if they score some twos, that’s OK, because they had 18 threes or so in their last outing. They’re a nice team. If he gets healthy, they can make a run at this thing.”
Christen led Magnolia with 19 points and Greathouse scored 16 to go with four steals.
The Blue Eagles made 7-of-15 triples and 17-of-41 shots.
“They killed us on the offensive boards. That’s been our forte,” Tallman said. “We out-rebound the other team and they annihilated us on the boards.”
Tucker County will take on No. 3 East Hardy in a semifinal.