New Richmond – High school basketball games during school hours in West Virginia are a rarity, especially in-house.
Friday afternoon was one of those rare days in Wyoming County and the AA No. 2 ranked Wyoming East boys basketball team put on a show for the student body.
Pitching a 23-0 shutout in the opening quarter, the Warriors breezed by Mount View 79-35.
“They are cool. It is really neat and our kids get excited for it, playing in front of their peers. We are going to return the game to Mount View.” Wyoming East head coach Kent McBride said about the in-school contest. “It is something I did growing up, but I did it in grade school. I never got to in high school. It was cool.”
Having not played in a week due to the weather forced cancellations, Wyoming East appeared to not miss a beat.
Konnor Fox scored the opening basket before back-to-back triples from Broc Johnson and two longs ball from Talan Muscari built a 14-point lead that was 23-0 after the first eight minutes.
“I think our mental focus was there today. When you start like we did, the focus is there,” McBride said. “At the end of the day, Mount View has people that can play too. They are not a bad team, but they have some injuries and are banged up.”
Ty’shan Norman snapped the drought for the Golden Knights, but the overall power and defensive pressure were too much for the visitors from McDowell County who trailed 45-8 at the break.
“I thought we guarded way better today. We were really disappointed with some of our defensive lapses (last Friday at) Bluefield,” McBride said. “We have spent the last few days of practice really being pretty rough on the guys and they responded pretty well. The focus going into today was we had to be better defensively if we are going to play long in March. I thought we did better.”
Johnson, Fox and Landen Hodges led the Warriors with 12 points each, while Cory Hall scored 10 and Muscari added eight.
Ky’Rece Hughes had six for the Golden Knights.
Wyoming East moves to 6-1 and will host Mingo Central at 5 p.m. Saturday before hosting Summers County Tuesday, then returning the in-school game at Mount View next Friday.
MV: 0 8 15 10 – 35
WE: 23 22 17 17 – 79
Mount View
Ty’shan Norman 4, Zy’Mir Martin 5, Zion Jackson 2, Ky’rece Hughes 6, Hunter Muncy 2, Maddox Walker 5, Rumeal Porterfield 5, Curtis West 3, Jayoun Scott 3.
Wyoming East
Braydon Hoosier 5, Talan Muscari 8, Broc Johnson 12, Zac Hunt 2, Landen Hodges 12, Cory Hall 10, Braxton Morgan 4, Konnor Fox 12, Grayson Ashley 5, Ben Davis 1, Jonah Hendricks 2, Jessie Wyatt 3.
