Wheeling Central's Eli Sancomb drives to the basket during the Maroon Knights' Class AA semifinal against Wayne on Friday inside the Charleston Coliseum.

CHARLESTON — After another round of the WVSSAC Class AA Boys Basketball Tournament, the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights have another emphatic victory, and Maroon Knight senior Eli Sancomb has another tournament record in the books.

No. 1 Wheeling Central defeated No. 5 Wayne on Friday in the Class AA semifinals, 86-53 inside the Charleston Coliseum, while Sancomb set a Class AA tournament record with 41 points in the win.

The victory comes after Wednesday’s quarterfinals where Central, now with a 22-0 record this season, defeated No. 8 Frankfort 95-56. In that game, Sancomb set a tournament record with 16 assists.

Wheeling Central will have a shorter turnaround this time, with the Class AA state championship game set for Saturday at 12:30 p.m. back inside the Charleston Coliseum.

The Maroon Knights will face No. 2 Wyoming East (22-2) for the title. It will be a chance for Wheeling Central to claim back-to-back state championships, and for head coach Mel Stephens to win his eighth state title.

“That’s been their goal since last year,” Stephens said of his team. “I mean, we were happy to send those four seniors out last year with a state championship. But as soon as that game was over, those underclassmen said they want to come back and do it again. So, they’ve gotten to the point where they have the opportunity.”

Eli Sancomb certainly did his part in getting to Saturday’s championship game, shooting 12-20 from the floor and 17-20 from the stripe to reach a Class AA-record 41 points. Sancomb, who was announced as the W.Va. Gatorade Player of the Year earlier Friday, also grabbed six rebounds and dished another 10 assists.

“He’s just an unbelievable, unbelievable player, number one, but an unbelievable kid, really,” Stephens said of Sancomb. “People don’t see all the work he puts in, don’t see all the outside of basketball stuff that he does. I mean, he’s just a special, special kid.”

Sancomb had 19 points in the first quarter, and was subbed out with six minutes to go in the game. The all-time tournament scoring record is 50 points in a game, set by Herbie Brooks of Mullens High School in 1983.

On Friday, the Maroon Knights and Pioneers played a close first quarter, with Central leading 24-19. As has been the story for the Knights many times before during their undefeated season though, as the game progressed, Central’s offense never stopped churning out scores, and their opponents couldn’t keep up.

Wheeling Central led 46-31 at halftime, with the Maroon shooting 17-24 in the half— a more-than-serviceable 70.8 percent.

Central shot a tick under 60% from the field as a team Friday, while holding Wayne to 38% shooting. The Maroon also held a sizable advantage at the foul line, where Central shot 25-29— helped massively by Sancomb’s 17-20 effort— while the Pioneers shot 13-15 from the stripe as a team.

“We preach defense big time,” Stephens said. “I mean, that and rebounding. I don’t think you can win games if you can’t rebound the ball. It starts with a good defensive pressure and forcing teams to take tough shots. If you do that and you rebound the ball, you’re in pretty good shape. With Eli and Max [Olejasz] and Luke [Sancomb] on the offensive end, we don’t have a lot of problems offensively, but I tell them all the time, offense won’t be there every single night. I mean, you hope it is, but it probably won’t be. You have got to be able to fall back on your defense.”

Olejasz finished with 19 points, including a healthy dose of slam dunks from the baseline, and five rebounds. The senior shot 9-10 from the field.

“Him and Eli have been playing together for years, so they know each other really well,” Stephens said. “That’s a big key to our success is those two, how those two guys play together. The other guys feed off of that too.”

Luke Sancomb scored nine points Friday. Steven Brodegard scored five points, grabbed six rebounds and tallied two blocks.

Wayne was led by Colton Heck’s 29.

Despite plowing through their first two state tournament opponents, Stephens is expecting a big challenge against the Wyoming East Warriors.

“We’ve been looking at that kind of scenario all year, because they’re very good and they got some size to match up with us a little bit. It’s going to come down to who can make the plays on the defensive end especially, and then who can who can convert their offensive stuff.”