×

Wheeling Central girls back to defend state title

WHEELING — Wheeling Central girls’ basketball coach Penn Kurtz has a second home — the Charleston Civic Center.

Kurtz is in his 26th year guiding the Maroon Knights. In 23 of those seasons his charges have advanced to the state tournament in Charleston.

Central punched its latest trip Thursday night via a 80-51 Region One, Section One regional co-final triumph over a game-but-outmanned Tyler Consolidated squad on Skip Prosser Court.

Making their latest foray to the state tournament even sweeter is that the Maroon Knights will be cast in the role of defending state champions. Central toppled Huntington St. Joe’s in last year’s title tilt, giving Kurtz his third state crown, also turning the trick in 2004 and 2008.

“It is always a special feeling making it back to the state tournament. But people don’t realize we are not the same team as a year ago,” Kurtz said. “We started three players (Thursday) who have never started in a tournament game before this year. We really are a young team.”

Making this season’s return trip to Charleston much tougher is the loss of star guard Hannah White. The junior tore her ACL back in December.

Central improved to 15-9 and earned the state tournament’s No. 4 seed. The Knights will play Tucker County Wednesday at 9 p.m.

Tyler Consolidated closed out at 14-10. The Silver Knights played a solid first half, trailing 36-28 at intermission.

Central junior dynamo Eden Gainer nearly single handily broke the game open in the third quarter. The all-state guard exploded for 16 points in the frame, including eight straight at one juncture as the hosts rolled to a 63-38 upper hand entering the fourth quarter.

Gainer, who was saddled with foul issues in the first-half, led a well-balanced Knight attack with 23 points.

Sophomore Marissa Horan, who has blossomed into a quality performer at both ends of the floor, delivered 20 points and unbridled energy.

Junior dandy Kaylee Reinbeau was a dominant force all over the hardwood. The 6-foot-1 all-stater just missed a triple-double, finishing with 18 points, 17 rebounds and eight steals. Sophomore Tristen White tallied 10 points and grabbed eight boards.

“At halftime, I told the girls they were playing tight. I said just relax, have fun and play basketball,” Kurtz said. “We came out and got into the passing lanes, causing turnovers which gave us some easy baskets. We played much more up to our capabilities in the second half.

“We entered the season with a lot of expectations. We went through some tough times after Hannah got hurt. So we told the girls to forget about those expectations and just go play basketball and see where it takes us. We have some girls really improving. As a result, we are playing better.”

Tyler hard-working senior Josey Jones was superb in a losing cause. She tossed in a game-high 26 points while classmate JoLee Walton added 12.

“Our goal coming in was to try and shut down Reinbeau and Gainer. They are very good players and we were not able to do what we wanted,” Tyler Consolidated coach Ben Thomas said. “Central is also very quick which created a lot of turnovers (22). Turnovers really hurt us.

“But this is where we wanted to be. We wanted to get to the regionals. We had a good year. We lose some quality kids but we also have some talented kids coming back.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today