By NICK HENTHORN
West Virginia Sportswriters Association
WHEELING – After a season of dominant play and broken records, Wheeling Central’s Eli Sancomb climbed to a whole new level in the state tournament.
Pacing the Class AA field in all major stat categories and leading the Maroon Knights to a state championship over Williamstown, the Central junior has completed his climb this year– and found himself all alone at the mountaintop. Sancomb has been named the 2025 Evans Award winner as the state’s most outstanding boys basketball player, selected by the West Virginia Sportswriters Association.
The award is named after former Fairmont Times sports editor Bill Evans and has been awarded annually since 1970.
In a season where he could have defined himself by the results and accolades, Sancomb instead focused on his work ethic, and the people around him that have helped him get to his place of esteem.
“It means a lot, for sure,” Sancomb said. “It’s been a lot of time in the gym to get to this point in time. I still believe that I can improve on my game. There’s some stuff that I can improve on my game for sure, but it feels really good to be recognized.”
“I absolutely couldn’t do it without my coaches and teammates. I mean, they have a lot of trust in me, rebounding, passing, scoring, whatever it is. I can really just trust my teammates because I know my team. All my teammates work hard and I mean, they don’t get as much credit, but they do work very, very hard. To win a state championship, they were obviously a really big part of that.”
Sancomb concludes his junior season averaging 25.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.6 steals per game, and led the Class AA state tournament in each of those categories, plus blocks, while on his way to a title and Class AA tournament MVP nod. He finished with shooting splits of 54.4/36.0/84.8.
Though a gaudy stat line, Wheeling Central head coach Mel Stephens was, much like Sancomb himself, more interested in talking about the process.
“Well deserved, the kid works his tail off,” Stephens said. “You know, he’s very good to begin with, but just a couple days after we got back from Charleston, he was back in a gym working on his game to get better. It’s quite an honor for him.”
“He fills the stat sheet up for sure– and a lot of that stuff goes unnoticed. A lot of people see how many points he scored and think that, you know, that’s all he does. But he does so many other things for us, as far as rebounding and getting the ball to other guys in positions where they can score.
Really, as important as all that stuff is, it’s probably his leadership ability that’s most important. Even though he’s only a junior, the guys look up to him and just try to follow his example. And he definitely made us a better team just by being there.”
Wheeling Central’s state title was their first since 2018, with Sancomb going for 26 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in the championship game, a 59-40 triumph over the Yellowjackets. Stephens gave his star plenty of credit for his team’s success, even beyond being the Knights’ best player.
“The work that he puts in, the other guys see that and a lot of the other guys get into the gym,” Stephens said. “He encourages them to come into the gym with him. And that definitely had an effect on our team. Guys were willing to put the extra work in, whether it was before school or staying after practice to get more shots up or to do different things.
“He was definitely the ring leader for all that. That kind of enthusiasm, that kind of dedication carries over. It was very infectious for the other guys on our team.”
Suffice to say Sancomb lives on the basketball court– a place that has been his home for most of his life. Sancomb’s father, Danny Sancomb, was an impressive player in his own right at D-II Wheeling University, and has been a coach at a number of schools, including his alma mater and the University of California (PA) where he currently resides.
“I think that really goes back to his family,” Stephens said. “His mom and dad are big supporters of him. And obviously his dad being a college coach, Eli has been around basketball from a very young age. As far as understanding the game, he’s been around a lot of different players, both high school and college kids, so he’s got a very good understanding of how the game needs to be played.”
As well as returning Wheeling Central to the top of state competition, Sancomb is also breaking completely new ground for the Maroon Knights. The junior set his school’s single-game scoring record by pouring in 47 points on the road against The Linsly School, a game where Central had to come back from a 15-2 deficit to start the game.
And by winning the Evans Award, Sancomb marks his name in school history as the first Maroon Knight to be honored with the distinction.
“He’s definitely going to be one of the all-time greats,” Stephens said. “He probably would have given Chase Harler a run for his money for the all-time leading scorer in school history, if he hadn’t missed his freshman year, and then seven or eight games last year. But with the awards he’s picking up– Chase won the Gatorade Player of the Year also, but I don’t think he won the Evans Award. So Eli is making some strides there, as far as what he’s done and what he’s capable of doing.”
Sancomb is 24 points away from hitting 1,000 in his career. It shouldn’t take much time for him to reach that number next season, and move on to greater ventures.
“I’ll have the same goals, winning the OVAC championship again and winning the state championship again,” Sancomb said of his next year.
“I mean, if you get the best player in the state coming back for another year, that definitely makes you feel good,” Stephens said about Sancomb’s impending senior season. “And we got some guys– Max Olejasz is coming back, Nico Kusic– both of those guys started for us all year. Eli’s younger brother, Luke, is coming back. He was usually the first guy off the bench. We’ve got a good nucleus coming back. You know with him, even though he’s won these awards and we won a championship, I don’t think he is satisfied. He’ll continue to work and continue to try to get better and continue to push his teammates to be better.”
Other finalists for the Evans Award included Spring Mills’ Caleb Thomas and George Washington’s Noah Lewis.
