Vs. Ironton (3/14)
On the court in the Convocation Center at Ohio University, Athens, the Tornadoes were making the West Muskingum school history books as they took on the Ironton Fighting Tigers for the Division V Region 19 championship Title. With their first foray into the final eight, under the guidance of the first-year head coach Cole Smith, West was expecting a big challenge from the 23 – 2 Tigers.
The Tornadoes got ahead of the Tigers early on and carried the lead through to the end of the first quarter, taking a 12 – 8 advantage into the second period. Ironton rallied for 13 points in the second period, but it didn’t slow down the Tornadoes as they held a 27 – 21 lead heading into the halftime locker room.
The Fighting Tigers came back from the break, hoping to overturn the West lead and take over the game despite outscoring the Tornadoes 13 – 10 in the third quarter, West Muskingum still led 37 – 34 at the end of the period. The two teams went shot-for-shot in the last minutes of the game, with the Tigers unable to close the deficit, and the record-breaking season for West Muskingum got extended by a 45 – 42 victory over Ironton, giving them the Division V Region 19 Title for the first time in school history, and a trip to the Final Four in Dayton.
“Honestly, it’s amazing. It’s not about one individual person, it’s about the whole team. I think the energy here is crazy.
Everybody has their role. We came in, we were the underdogs. Everybody out there said we couldn’t rebound, we couldn’t do this, we couldn’t do that. I think we just proved out there that we are a great basketball team. I’m just excited to keep playing with my guys. [going forward] Honestly, just the same as always. We never change anything that we do. We just stick to defense. Our number one goal is to be a great defense.” stated junior center Carter Smith.
Senior forward Tavin Bennett said “Oh, this is something that we didn’t really expect this at all coming into this year. Brand new coach. It’s just something that we unconsciously worked for. We all just kind of came out here and gave it our all. And, you know, without really talking about it, we knew this is kind of what we wanted to accomplish.
Moving forward, we had a lot of turnovers. I think we were just excited. You know, we haven’t been here before, so you know, we kind of were trying to rush a good bit, trying to speed up the game a little too fast for ourselves. But in the second half, we kind of fixed that a little bit. So I think going into the next game, that’s something that we’re going to need to probably fix.”
Vs. St. Clairsville (3/11)
On Wednesday at Winland Memorial Gymnasium in Zanesville, the West Muskingum Tornadoes faced the St. Clairsville Red Devils on neutral ground. The two teams were battling from the first whistle, with West M taking a slight 20 – 17 lead at the first break over the Red Devils. Scoring slowed in the second period, but the Tornadoes kept their edge, taking a 28 – 24 lead into the halftime intermission.
With both teams back in play, West kept their momentum as they pushed past the Devils ‘ defense to finish the third period up 44 – 38. Watching as their chances for continued playoff games faded, the Red Devils left it all on the court in the fourth quarter, tying up the game in the last seconds to push the teams into overtime at 57 – 57. Head-to-head in the final minutes, the two teams went scoreless down to the last seconds of the period when a last-second pass from the opposite end of the court was caught by sophomore Noah Morrison, who hit a shot for two to win the game 59 – 57 for West Muskingum as the players tackled each other in excitement on the sidelines.
The shot that won the game was made by West M’s lead scorer, Noah Morrison, who had 24 points, two rebounds, three assists, and a steal to shine for the Tornadoes. Teammates Carter Smith, Tavin Bennett, and Gray Knowlton each had nine points for West.
Vs. Ridgewood (3/7)
Tri-Valley High School hosted the Division V playoff game between West Muskingum and Ridgewood. West Muskingum didn’t waste time as they took off for the goal as soon as the game started, and never looked back, taking a huge 19 – 3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Ridgewood barely touched the ball in the second period as the Tornadoes blew through the first half with a 40 – 7 advantage at halftime.
The pause in play didn’t give Ridgewood any assistance as West came back to dominate in the third quarter, even with a running clock to end the third, up 50 – 11. As the clock continued to tick down, the Tornadoes finished the game up 56 – 17 to move on to win the District Title for West for the first time since the 1989-90 season.
CAPTION: West Muskingum celebrated their very first Regional Championship. | CREDIT: Matthew Dotson, The Buzz
