Knights Earn First Victory
Whg. Central downs BishopBy TRACY WATSON
WHEELING - It was never a question of if for Wheeling Central's boys' basketball team, only when its first victory of the season would come.
And Coach Mel Stephens' defending West Virginia Class A state champions answered that with a resounding victory Tuesday afternoon in the consolation game of the Undo's Ohio Valley Catholic Tournament.
The Maroon Knights opened the game on a 19-0 spurt and all 13 Central players dented the scoring column in rolling to an 82-48 thrashing of Bishop Donahue at Wheeling Jesuit University's McDonough Center.
Stephens and his 1-3 record squad will have little time to celebrate as they are slated to return to the Washington Avenue campus Friday night for the second of three battles with unbeaten city rival Wheeling Park.
''We needed this win and it is good to get it (Tuesday),'' Stephens said. ''Hopefully it will help us have some good practices the next couple of days, but I don't know how well it will carry over to Friday's Wheeling Park game.''
Wheeling Central left little doubt early, with senior Jordan Sorge dumping in eight of his 12 points in the initial 4:10 of play to help the designated visitors race to an insurmountable 19-0 advantage.
Coach Tom Wise's club pulled to within 22-8 after one, but a 9-0 Maroon Knights spurt pushed the margin to 31-8, with the Bishops eventually trailing 43-23 at the break.
With the count sitting at 48-26 early in the third, Central used its final run, this time reeling off 20 unanswered, to move to its biggest lead at 68-26.
''Believe me, losing doesn't sit very well with those kids in the locker room,'' Stephens added. ''We came out and made a statement early, executing the offense and making them force shots and getting rebounds on defense.
''It was nice to get contributions from everyone - that has been a problem. We have been getting one double-figure scorer a game and then there seems to be a big drop-off.
''(Tuesday) the kids shared the ball real well and made some shots. I think that was the biggest difference from our first three games.''
Zach Hood paced three double-digit scorers with 16 points while Jack Weishar chipped in with 11. Overall, the Maroon Knights finished at a shade less than 50 percent from the floor, hitting 28 of 57 attempts while knocking down 10 from 3-point range.
Sophomore Chad Riedel paced Donahue with 14 points, all coming in the second half, while Ryan Jones scored all 10 of his in the opening two quarters.
Central grabbed a 36-22 advantage off the glass and turned the ball over just 12 times, three less than the Bishops.
Hood and Sorge were named to the All-Tournament team for the Maroon Knights while Zach Whitfield made the honorary squad for Bishop Donahue.
