New Richmond – Wyoming East has aspirations of playing on the final Saturday of the season but nothing is promised.
For a half they learned that the hard way.
The No. 2-ranked and top-seeded Warriors overcame a sluggish first half to pull away from Mingo Central in a 69-44 victory over the Miners in the Class AA Region 3 tournament Friday night in New Richmond.
The win sends Wyoming East to the regional co-final where it will face county rival Westside on Thursday in New Richmond with a spot in the state tournament on the line.
The game had all the makings of an upset with the Miners trailing just 24-22 a minute into the third quarter. But the Class AA contenders rebounded quickly.
“Kind of lethargic,” Wyoming East head coach Kent McBride said of his team’s first half performance. “We wrote on the board we wanted to play fast. Watch how many times in the first half the whole team’s walking down the court. So we, I don’t know what the mood was, what the cause of that was – no JV game, I don’t know.
“But the message at halftime was, ‘Alright guys, that’s probably first bad half since we played Bridgeport. We played a bad half, we’re not going to play a bad game.’ And they snapped out of it. I think our energy level, I thought we rebounded the ball in the second half which showed our energy level so they snapped out of it.”
Keying the second half assault was the duo of Braedy Johnston and Broc Johnson who combined for 23 points after the intermission. Johnson got the tidal wave rolling with a breakaway dunk and Johnston took it home with four 3s in the fourth quarter and five for the game.
“That’s a senior and a guy that just wants to win at this point in his career,” McBride said of Johnston. “They were playing a little triangle-and-two and we knew when they happened we were like, ‘Braedy, you’re going to stand over there and shoot.’ Our guys were telling him and we tell him, ‘If you catch it standing on the arc open, shoot 40 of them. If you shoot 40 and miss 40 our guys are good with it. We’re perfectly fine taking 40.’
“We knew that was going to be a dangerous game for Mingo Central if you’re going to do that we’re eventually going to put the ball on the hole and Braedy was the one that broke the ice and everyone in the air felt like it was going in and it was nice to see.”
East struggled to make routine plays throughout the first half, turning the ball over seven times in the opening 16 minutes and shooting just 17 percent (2-for-12).
Despite that the host Warriors jumped out to a 10-2 lead on the strength of 3s from Johnson and Johnston but watched Mingo claw back to tie the game at 10. Braxton Morgan netted three consecutive layups across the first and second quarter, sparking a 14-0 run the seemed to be the start of an avalanche. But the Miners rode the wave, closing the half on an 8-0 run behind the efforts of sharpshooter Devin Maynard and center Buckley Mangabo.
That run extended into second half, topping out at 12-0 before East hit the gas.
Keegan Davidson got it rolling with a 3 before Johnson scored at the rim. East followed up with five offensive rebounds on its ensuing possession, pushing the lead to nine when Fox finally capitalized on one of them.
From there East built its lead out, pushing it to 11, then 12, 15 and then 17 when Johnson’s dunk off a steal sent the crowd into a frenzy ahead of the third quarter horn.
Consecutive 3s from Johnson and Johnston to open the final frame effectively put the game out of reach, setting up a third and final matchup with the Renegades who beat Independence on Friday.
“It’s a very dangerous game,” McBride said. “When you get down to the final 16 in the state that’s what it’s going to be and you take on the count rivalry aspect. They’re very well-coached by Michael Asbury and Nick Cook so we know they’ll come in here and do something unexpected. I think the biggest winner of the night will be the WVSSAC because they get all the ticket money. Unfortunately it doesn’t go to any region opponents, it goes to the SSAC.
“Both teams are very familiar with each other. It’s going to be juiced up in here and one of those I encourage anybody to come if you’ve never been to one. The regular season games might felt one way, this one will feel a little different.”
Mingo Central
Matrix Sartin 6, Devin Maynard 24, Buckley Magabo 4, Keziah Joplin 7, Jacob Slates 2
Wyoming East
Keegan Davidson 10, Talan Muscari 5, Broc Johnson 18, Braxton Morgan 6, Konnor Fox 10, Braedy Johnston 15, Ryder Chapman 3, Wyatt Jessie 3
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