No. 1 Wheeling Central blistered the nets of the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, converting on 9-of-20 3-point attempts in an 83-49 toppling of No. 5 James Monroe Thursday evening in the Class AA semifinals.
The win sends Central to a state championship game for the first time since 2018 when it defeated Huntington St. Joe in the Class A title game. Awaiting the Maroon Knights is No. 3 Charleston Catholic, a team they beat twice by single digits in the regular season. The game will be played at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Central’s offense cooked from the jump, firing at a 63 percent clip (7-of-11) in the first quarter alone. For the game they shot 46 percent (27-of-58), using their proficient shooting to open up the paint where they outscored the Mavericks 36-8.
“We switched defenses like 20 times,” James Moore head coach Angie Mann said. “We started out in man, went zone, went man again, tried 2-3, tried 3-2 for about two seconds. Tried man again, so, I mean, they were knocking them down no matter what. Gotta give them credit.”
Central’s three-headed monster of Kaitlyn Blake, Seneca Heller and Addie Payton took turns putting the reins on the Lady Mavericks.
Heller and Payton were hot from the jump with the latter nailing a three-point play and a 3-pointer, sandwiching a 3 from Payton. Blake took the baton with a layup that gave Central a 13-3 lead less than three minuets into the game, forcing a James Monroe timeout.
Heller nailed a pair of free throws out of the break before Mya Dunlap connected on a jumper for the Mavericks but another Payton 3, a short Blake jumper and a 3 from Bella Fitzsimmons had the Maroon Knights ahead 24-5 six minutes into the game.
Ahead 26-9 after a quarter, the avalanche continued early into the second when Payton nailed her fourth 3 to push the advantage to 20. Down 38-21 with two minuets to go and seemingly done, the Lady Mavericks mustered their best stretch of the game to inspire hope.
A pair of free throws, from Maggie Boroski, a layup by Kendall Long and a 3 from Dunlap brought the them back to within 10 at 38-28 with under a minute left.
Heller threw a wet blanket on the rally with her second three-point play of the half in the waning seconds, pushing the lead back to 13 at the break.
It never fell below double digits the rest of the way as Central won the third 26-11 to erase all doubt.
“People have played us a lot of different ways all year so we have lots of different answers for a zone or a man-to-man or different types of zones,” Central head coach Roberta Olejasz said. “So we just went to what we know.”
James Monroe’s struggles in the first quarter extended beyond defense. The Mavericks were unable to get in a flow on offense, turning the ball over eight times, leading directly to 10 of Central’s 26 first-quarter points.
“We thought that they were – all but one of them was pretty much right hand dominant, so we forced them left, or we forced them left and then we forced the other girl to the right,” Olejasz said. “It was pretty easy for these two (Heller and Payton) to kind of pick up some steals and get them to throw the ball to someone on our team, so we could go get some runouts on them.”
The loss brings an end to the careers of six James Monroe seniors that helped end the programs 20-year state tournament drought with appearances in the Class A semifinals last year and the Class AA semis this year.
“Gosh, I mean we’re losing six of them,” Mann said. “We got Maggie (Boroski) and Ava (Dunlap) that we’re losing. We’ve got Bryleigh (Thomas) who came and joined us this year. She played a little in ninth grade. We’ve got Aleigh Hill and we’ve got Rileigh Hopkins and Kinleigh Bradley that came off the bench for us. so that’s quite a crew of seniors. We don’t have a junior on the team, so next year we’re gonna be really young, that’s for sure.”
Mya Dunlap and Maggie Boroski led the Mavericks with 14 points each with Boroski adding 10 rebounds. Kendall Long added 10 points.
Blake led all scorers with 28 points while Heller netted 25. Payton recorded 18 on six made 3-pointers.
