The girls had their time to shine, and this week the attention shifts to the boys as the semifinal round of the OVAC Boys Basketball Championships gets under way Tuesday across the Ohio Valley.
There will be two new champions this year at minimum as Barnesville in Class AAA and Trinity Christian in Class A didn’t make the final four. However, the other three classes feature multi-year defending champions who have no intentions of yielding their respective titles without a fight.
Tuesday’s action will determine Saturday’s championship round, and there figures to be dogfights aplenty across the Valley.
Class AAAAA
University hasn’t been in the OVAC long, but the Hawks’ boys’ team has won three straight titles, including last season’s 63-53 triumph against No. 1 seed Wheeling Park. Prior to that, the Morgantown Mohigans, this season’s No. 1 seed, won three in a row. The year before? Parkersburg South beat University.
It’s been since Park’s 2012 championship against Indian Creek that a longtime OVAC member hoisted the 5A crown. 2012 is also the last year a team from Monongalia County didn’t reach the finals.
No. 4 Weir at No. 1 Morgantown
The top-ranked Mohigans have split with University this season and own a win against Wheeling Park. Morgantown is the No. 3 team in West Virginia. The foursome of Mac McMillen, Xavier Pryor, Troy Battle, and Alex Rudy are all capable scorers.
Weir is coming off a tough loss to the Class AA’s top team in North Marion. The Riders are led by Elijah Gillette, who totaled 27 points for Weir in the losing effort against the Huskies. This game will be a step-up in competition as Weir plays a lot of other Class AA teams, along with John Marshall and Brooke on the W.Va. side.
No. 3 Wheeling Park at No. 2 University
This game pits the No. 1 team in West Virginia Class AAA against the No. 4 team.
University is led by Bowling Green recruit Kaden Matheny. Its only three losses are to Morgantown and a pair of defeats at the Myrtle Beach, Beach Ball Classic in December. The Hawks have beaten the Patriots twice this season, 72-67 at home and 70-50 at home.
The Patriots are led by Alex Vargo. Vargo earlier broke the school’s single-game scoring record with a 53-point effort against Parkersburg South. He is backed by Xavier Morris and Travis Zimmerman, among others.
Class AAAA
Coach Scooter Tolzda’s Meadowbrook Colts have owned the 4A bracket in recent years, winning four in a row, including last season’s 58-48 win against St. Clairsville. The Colts will try to make it five in a row before leaving the OVAC after May.
No. 2 East Liverpool was a conference power in the ’90s under then coach Nick Aloi, winning four titles. The Potters will look to reclaim some past glory. Martins Ferry last won a title in 2017 at the AAAA level, and Harrison Central’s lone basketball title came during the 2007 season. The last time anyone of these teams, other than Meadowbrook, made the finals was in 2012, when the Potters fell to St. Clairsville 79-64.
No. 4 Harrison Central at No. 1 Meadowbrook
Meadowbrook is coming off a 95-47 thumping of River View after narrow wins against conference rivals New Philadelphia and Dover. The Colts’ lone losses are twice to Wheeling Park and once to Dover. Johna McCall and Jake Singleton are both capable of catching fire and going for 20 on a nightly basis.
The Huskies punched their ticket to the finals with an impressive win over Steubenville Big Red that allows them to leapfrog rival St. Clairsville for the fourth spot. In that game, Harrison’s Kobe Mitchell put on a clinic, scoring 45 points in a 65-62 win. He’s the school’s all-time leading scorer, boys or girls, with more than 1,500 points.
No. 3 Martins Ferry at No. 2 East Liverpool
The Potters are coming off a disappointing loss to Oak Glen, 65-60, three nights removed from a win against St. Clairsville (61-58). Their other losses are to Big Red and Meadowbrook and Carrollton. The trio of Tresean Jackson, Timmy Neal and Brennan O’Hara paced the Potters.
Martins Ferry has had an up and down season and is coming off a loss to Barnesville. The Riders employ the services of talented 6-6 post Logan Smith, along with Ruben Hilson and Jaizen Miles. The Riders finished third in the Buckeye 8 while the Potters won the championship by beating St. Clairsville.
Class AAA
Neither last season’s Class AAA champion Barnesville, nor the runner-up Shenandoah qualified for this season’s tournament. In fact, you must go back to 2018’s Union Local loss to Wheeling Central for the last time any of these four teams made the championship final, and further still to 2016 to find one that won the title, as Magnolia did by beating Fort Frye for the second year in a row.
The Blue Eagles have four championships while the Jets last tasted victory in 2015, albeit in Class 4A. Fort Frye has three titles to its credit, the last in 2014.
No. 4 Magnolia at No. 1 Union Local
For a possible Magnolia against Fort Frye finale to transpire, the Blue Eagles will have to get by the red-hot Union Local Jets. The Jets have won 13 of their last 14 games; only a narrow loss to John Marshall marred the streak.
Doing so will mean containing Logan Merritt, who just broke the school’s single-season record for 3-pointers with 78, and he realistically could reach triple digits by season’s end. The Jets play fast and have a host of capable shooters.
Magnolia is No. 9 in West Virginia Class A. The Blue Eagles are led by Jake Gamble and Qwailei “Q” Turner, who has thrown down a few monster dunks this season.
No. 3 Fort Frye at No. 2 Linsly
This figures to be one of the better matchups of the opening round.
Linsly has beaten a number of OVAC tourney participants, including Weir, Martins Ferry, Wheeling Central, and Shadyside. Marshall Taylor, Caleb Murray, and rising freshman Nathan Coleman lead the Cadets, along with Trevin Tush.
The Cadets’ three losses have come against Morgan, Warren and Parkersburg South. They’ve also beat South, along with Wheeling Central as the Cadets are annually one of the better basketball teams in the OVAC. As usual, the Cadets feature a balanced attack with their top three, Kelton Fogle, Connor Baker, and Zane Wallace, averaging between 11 and 12 points per game.
Class AA
This has been Central’s tournament for nearly a decade. The Maroon Knights beat Toronto last season 63-53 and have won every year prior dating back to 2013, except for 2018, when Central won the AAA title while River beat Steubenville Catholic in Class AA.
While Southern Local and Clay-Battelle are newbies to the OVAC, Shadyside has three championships to its credit and last reached the finals in 2017, when it fell 75-61 to Central.
No. 4 Clay-Battelle at No. 1 Wheeling Central
The Cee-Bees have two losses this season, one to Morgantown Trinity and the other in their most recent game, a 60-51 setback to Ritchie County. They have beaten Hundred twice along with Cameron, but their current opponent is a step-up.
Central has beaten the likes of Shadyside, Linsly, Magnolia, along with bigger schools like RCB and Fairmont Senior. The Knights play a daunting schedule, and it usually shows come tourney time. They are led by Ryan Reasbeck, Avery Lee, and Jalen Creighton.
No. 3 Southern Local at No. 2 Shadyside
Southern is coming off two straight losses to Wellsville and Columbiana but has played some quality basketball this season. The Indians are led by Cam Gordhaus, who hit for 24 points in the loss to Columbiana.
The Tigers have won four in a row and five of their last six, including victories against Linsly and Class A’s No. 1-ranked Frontier Cougars. Kory Beckett, Kelly Hendershot, Tyler Parr, and Bryce Amos lead a balanced Shadyside attack.
Class A
With Morgantown Trinity finishing on the outside looking in for Class A, the OVAC’s smallest division will have a new champion for the first time since Madonna beat Wellsville in 2017. Cameron likely doesn’t mind, as Trinity beat the Dragons in the last two championship games, 59-42 and 52-40.
Last season was Frontier’s first qualification for the tournament, but the Cougars, this season’s top-ranked team, were bounced in the semis. The Cougars haven’t won a title since 2004 while Madonna has three to its credit. Neither Cameron nor Hundred has won an OVAC crown, and this is the Hornets first time qualifying for the final four.
No. 4 Cameron at No. 1 Frontier
Coach Jack Hart’s Dragons enter the tournament winning four in a row, including a 48-36 triumph against Madonna. Cameron also has split with Hundred. The Dragons are led by Jessop Broughton, Cole Burkett, Noah Neely, and Trevor Beresford.
Frontier is led by Logan Brooker, who averages nearly 21 points per game. Kyle Daugherty backs him with 14 per game, along with 13 boards per game for a double-double average. The Cougars are on a bit of a skid as the tournament begins, having lost three in a row and five of their last six.
No. 3 Madonna at No. 2 Hundred
Hundred hopes to make the most of its first appearance and is led by the tandem of Cody Soles and Trevor Norris. While Hundred has split with Cameron, the Hornets lost in their lone matchup with the Blue Dons, 66-31 back in January.
Like Frontier, the Blue Dons have fallen on hard times recently, losing three in a row and seven of their last eight. The Dons last tasted factory January 25 on the road against Tyler Consolidated. Brennan Secrist and Evan Boniti are both capable of hitting for 20 a game for Madonna.
