Charleston – Poca standout and two-time Evans Award winner Isaac McKneely, by his own admission, had been struggling shooting the basketball the last few games.
That was not the case Friday in the Class AA semifinal clash between the Dots and rival Ravenswood.
McKneely exploded for 26 points, including 5-of-9 from behind the arc, and Poca smothered the Red Devils offense in a 60-32 win.
The Dots will now play Bluefield for the Class AA state championship Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
“I want to give Poca their props. They are an outstanding team. They might win this thing in any class. They are so good defensively and they are so fundamentally sound,” Ravenswood head coach Mick Price said. “That is a credit to (head coach) Allen Osborne and the job he has done at Poca over the years. They are tough to score on and they don’t make a lot of mistakes. They take advantage of yours.”
In a slow moving first quarter, Poca led by one after the first period, but trailed 11-9 with 5:46 to play before halftime.
“I haven’t been shooting well the past few games, but I wasn’t really worried about it. I knew the work would pay off,” McKneely said. “Once you hit that first one, it’s just kind of a rhythm thing from there. My teammates hit me in the pocket really well. Once I started feeling it, that really gave us a boost in the first half. I am happy with the performance and I am glad we started making some shots.”
Three bombs from McKneely were part of 13-4 run to give Poca a 22-12 lead at the break.
“When we didn’t make some foul shots early, we couldn’t keep the spread close. They outscored us 35-11 in the second and third quarter, it just makes it tough,” Price lamented. “We needed to get it to the fourth quarter and keep it close. That got away from us. All the credit goes to Poca.”
The Dots put the game away by outscoring the Red Devils 21-4 in the third quarter, putting the game out of reach.
“I thought our kids played really well. Ravenswood is a really good program. I have a lot of respect for coach Price and his team,” Osborne said. “It was good win for us.”
The loss closes out the 100th year of basketball at Ravenswood High School.
“We end the year 21-5 after struggling for a couple of years,” Price said. “I am so proud of these kids and how hard they have worked to get our program back to where we want it to be.”
