WHEELING, W.Va. — Defending state champion Wheeling Central Catholic extended their winning streak to twenty games by knocking off Williamstown, 90-49 in a rematch of last year’s Class AA state championship game.
The Maroon Knights (8-0) scored at least 20 points in each of the first three quarters, including a 36-point outburst in the third quarter.
“We tell them all the time that we are never going to play that perfect game,” said Wheeling Central Catholic head coach Mel Stephens. “There’s always going to be some little things we need to work on. To this point in the season, we are pretty happy where we are.
“We were able to make shots and we were able to get stops. We had a pretty decent lead going into that third quarter, but that kind of blew it out there where there wasn’t much of a chance for them to come back in the fourth quarter. I thought our kids played well. They shared the ball. They rebounded the ball.”
Central used a 10-1 run in the first quarter to build a 20-9 lead after the opening stanza. That lead expanded to 19 points (43-24) at halftime. The Maroon Knights were very effective with their transition offense, leading to a wave of fast break opportunities with defending state player of the year and Liberty signee Eli Sancomb leading the break.
“Eli is very good at looking up the floor,” Stephens said.
“A lot of times, defense leads to some offense. Eli has confidence in all of those guys. He is not afraid to give the ball up to Luke [Sancomb] and to Riley [Taylor], Nico [Kusic], Max [Olejasz], any of those guys. He has confidence that they can score. Steven [Brodegard] got us a few rebounds in there and got us some putbacks. He is another big addition that didn’t get a lot of playing time on varsity last year. He has stepped in this year and really contributed.”
Central’s starters played three quarters before giving way to reserve players for the final frame.
“They get to sit and relax a little bit and cheer their teammates on. Those guys that show up everyday for practice, they get a chance to get out there and play in front of some people. I thought that group did pretty well too.”
Eli Sancomb led all scorers with 23 points. Olejasz added 19 points. Kusic (13) and Taylor (12) also scored in double figures for the Knights.
Williamstown (4-3) was led by Caleb Atkinson’s 12-point effort.