Gallery by Heather BelcherĀ
Logan boys basketball head coach Mark Hatcher knows all too well how hard it is to win in Wyoming County.
Tuesday night, the veteran coach brought his Class AA No. 2 ranked and undefeated Wildcats to the War Zone hoping to run past AA co-No. 3 Wyoming East.
The Warriors were having none of it.
Stirring up the echoes of the championship teams of the past, Wyoming East (4-1) used a strong fourth quarter to knock off Logan 59-51.
“We had told our team coming in that this would be a state tournament level game,” Wyoming East head coach Kent McBride said. “This was going to be a semifinal level, championship type game that was coming and it was.”
Logan entered the contest with an impressive undefeated resume. Wins included Westside, Mingo Central, Chapmanville and Williamstown which was tied with the Warriors at No. 3.
Wyoming East had played well early in the year as well with wins over Westside and Charleston Catholic but the Warriors had also not played in 10 days due to weather cancellations.
Early on, none of that seemed to matter.
The home team raced out to a 10-point lead that stood at eight points after the first quarter. However, when the halftime horn sounded the Wildcats had rallied to tie the contest at 28-apiece.
“I let them dig a hole because we hadn’t seen a lot of adversity,” Hatcher said. “I wanted them to get some adversity and no better place to get adversity than Wyoming County, right? They showed me a little bit by getting back into it though.”
The Wildcats kept the momentum going into the second half, twice building a four-point lead, but the visitors could not shake the Warriors.
“The game was played like I thought it would be played,” McBride said. “They made it hectic and we didn’t handle it well, but in that moment you have to battle.”
The Logan coach made it clear why he felt his team could not pull away from East.
“They got multiple, multiple offensive rebounds. I thought (Braxton Morgan) was the man out there tonight,” Hatcher said. “He was the alpha male all night long. Every time we made a run, or every time we had a lead, it seemed like he was the guy that came up with the ball. He found a way.”
McBride talked about how his team’s ability to stay calm through the storm was a big key to staying within arms reach of the Wildcats.
“The conversation with them was when you play these types of games, there will be bad plays. One bad play won’t get you beat,” McBride said. “One bad play that turns into four will. You just have to move on. Sometimes it is not you making a bad play, it’s them making you make a bad play. They can do that.”
Sophomore Konnor Fox set the tone to start the final period by taking a wrap around pass from Broc Johnson and slamming it home. Thirty seconds later, Morgan put home an offensive rebound to give the Warriors the lead for good.
“He was a man and he is built like a house,” McBride said about Morgan. “When he goes with two hands, a lot of times opponents are just along for the ride. You can’t take the ball from him. He is like our unsung hero.”
A bucket from Matthew Hatfield tied the game for the final time before Morgan scored again in the paint for a 50-48 lead.
“We had the lead and I felt pretty good, but we didn’t run our stuff. Wyoming East had a lot to do with that. They took a lot of our stuff way,” Hatcher said. “We hadn’t been running our offense very crisply, but we have got away with it because of transition and things like that. The last few games we have found ways to out-hustle and out-tough teams. Tonight we got out-hustled and out-toughed. They got all of the 50-50 balls. I thought our kids played hard, but I didn’t think we played very well.”
Morgan’s bucket sparked an 8-0 run to separate the game. Fox followed with a score in the paint before Johnson gathered the ball and dropped it in after a wild scramble.
“I thought there were five or six loose balls that when you look back, we went with two hands and we were the quickest to the ball. It was nothing more than that,” McBride said. “Those type of plays are not coaching or something that you draw up. That is when you are in the state tournament, who gets the 50-50 balls, gets the win. I thought we made those type of plays.”
A floater in the lane from Talan Muscari capped the run, but his scoring paled in comparison to the leadership displayed by the young freshman down the stretch.
(Logan senior guard McCormick) Ilderton is a dog,” McBride said. “He dogged Talan 94 feet out there. Talan was in the game about 30 minutes and he handled it. Late in the game, him being able to get downhill and making a big floater, that is the culmination of the work that kid has put in for about 24 months that was next level. Now he is pulling fruit off of the tree.”
“We have been in five games now and our team knows he is the one to get the ball to,” McBride went on to say. “They have relinquished the keys to him in terms of him getting us what we need to get into. They trust him with the ball. To do that in such a short period is special.”
L: 9 19 18 5 – 51
WE: 17 11 16 15
Logan
Grayson Sanders 2, Matthew Hatfield 15, Zayden Sherod 11, Colten Green 5, Lucas Lambert 7, Ivan Miller 8, McCormick Ilderton 2.
Wyoming East
Talan Muscari 12, Zack Hunt 9, Broc Johnson 15, Braxton Morgan 6, Konnor Fox 15, Landon Hodges 2.