WHEELING – In the first game of the season, Wheeling Central head coach Mel Stephens expected some jitters in the opener, but he also expected his team’s strengths to play out.
“I think some things went well,” Stevens said. “I thought we got out in transition and ran well, and at times we did well in the half court.
“Defensively, there were times when we had good defensive possession and times when we didn’t. You would expect that in the first game. We had two scrimmages, but still, the lights were off. It’s a little different when the lights are on and everyone is here.”
The good performances far outweighed the bad on Saturday night at Coach Skip Prosser Court as the Maroon Knights (1-0) defeated the Magnolia Blue Eagles (0-2) 95-65.
Eli Sancombe scored 27 points and Jeremy Ratcliffe added 21 points, giving the offense a strong start to the 2023-24 season.
According to the stat sheet, Wheeling Central, which had no seniors on its team last year and returns its entire team, hasn’t shown any growing pains. The Maroon Knights held their breath, racking up 37 field goals and 23 assists.
“That’s kind of their trademark. Most of the time they’re very selfish and they don’t care who’s scoring. They just want us to score. “I’m here,” Stevens said. “I thought we forced a few shots, but for the most part we did a really good job of making the extra pass and getting the ball to guys in position to score.”
Quinton Berlenski (seven assists, 13 points) and Sancombe (six assists) led Wheeling Central in this category.
I thought Quinton and Troy did a really good job. [Anthony] It’s both about distributing the ball,” Stevens said. “They can both score, but when they had the opportunity to pass the ball to other players who were in position to score, I thought they did it.”
Magnolia had a good first quarter against Wheeling Central, trailing 27-20 at the end of the first frame, and Blue Eagles forward Hayden Pyles scored his 1,000th point of the period. Pyles had 24 points, four rebounds and four steals on the day.
Sancombe got off to a strong start Saturday with 11 points in the quarter and Ratcliffe had 10 points.
“Eli is very good with the ball,” Stevens said. “He’s big enough and capable enough to take shots on the perimeter and get into the paint. Jeremy, he ran really well in transition and scored a lot of points there. Rebounding is going to be his thing. I think Max Oleyas did a great job rebounding as well.”
Ratcliffe grabbed eight rebounds and Olejas secured nine caroms. Sancomb posted a balanced stat line that included six rebounds and three steals.
The Knights increased their lead in the second quarter and led 50-34 at halftime, but the Blue Eagles were unable to get within 13 points the rest of the game.
The close game turned ugly as Wheeling scored with surprising consistency quarter after quarter while Magnolia’s offense ebbed and flowed. The Knights scored 27 points in the first quarter, 23 in the second, 22 in the third, and 23 in the fourth.
Magnolia shot 8-of-18 from the foul line, something head coach Dave Tolman called out after the game.
“I thought our free-throw shooting was what killed us in important situations, but I can’t understand it because we shot pretty well in practice,” he said. “I don’t know what the rebounding stats were, but I thought we were a little bit better tonight after getting hit by Richie. Central has a really good basketball team and we did everything we could to stop them. They shoot the ball very well in the gym.”
Wheeling Central made eight 3-pointers, led by Suncomb’s four, and made three in the first quarter alone. Magnolia made five 3-pointers, three of which missed Kingston Christen.
Pyles had 24, followed by Kristen with 17 and Hunter Oates with eight.
On Saturday, the Knights scored 11 points against Wheeling Central, with players on the bench scoring in the fourth quarter when the game was in their favor.
Wheeling Central Catholic will play Trinity Christian on Tuesday, while Magnolia will also have to face John Marshall on Tuesday.