Photo by Nick Henthorn Wheeling Central’s Nico Kusic drives to the basket during a game earlier this season against Martins Ferry. The Maroon Knights will play in the opening round of the WVSSAC Class AA State Tournament on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. against No. 8 Frankfort.

CHARLESTON — The Wheeling Central Maroon Knights have fond memories inside the Charleston Coliseum– the last time they were there, the Knights were lifting the Class AA state championship after defeating Williamstown in the finals of the 2025 WVSSAC Boys Basketball State Tournament.

Tuesday at 7:15 p.m., Wheeling Central, the No. 1 seed in this year’s Class AA tournament with a perfect 20-0 record, will have a chance to make more memories in Charleston as they take on No. 8 Frankfort in the state quarterfinals.

“I think they’re excited,” Wheeling Central head coach Mel Stephens, who has coached the Maroon to seven state titles, said. “We had a lot of those guys down there last year and some of them played a big part in us winning. I think that was their goal, as soon as that game was over last year, the guys that were coming back, they wanted to get back down there and do it again.

“They’re excited. We’re playing well and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to get down there and try for another one.”

Wheeling Central enters Charleston with plenty of attention around them, having dominated the competition throughout the season to this point. Of their 20 wins, only two have been single-digit victories- a 66-60 road win vs. Monroe Central, and a 67-64 victory at Logan.

Leading the charge through Central’s spotless season has been senior Eli Sancomb, the reigning Evans Award winner as the best player in the state of West Virginia. Sancomb, a Liberty commit, has averaged 31.2 points, 12.1 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 3.0 steals per game this year.

Needless to say, Stephens is glad to have a player like Sancomb come tournament time.

“It definitely, definitely makes our job a lot easier,” Stephens said of coaching Sancomb. “He’s the best player in the state and we depend on him to do a lot of things for us. But I think the best part about him is how he gets the other guys involved and makes them a little bit better.

“And I think that’s been the key to our success. You pretty much know what you’re going to get from him every night, but his ability to get other guys to make big contributions is what’s got us to where we are now.”

Those contributions have come up-and-down Central’s talented roster.

Max Olejasz scored his 1,000th career point in Central’s Regional Co-Final against Tyler in what has been a strong season for the 6-7 senior.

Olejasz is second on the team in scoring with 14.8 points per, along with 5.8 rebounds, shooting an efficient 63.5% from the field. He has made 47 3-pointers at a 38.3% clip.

Junior Luke Sancomb has proven himself as one of the top marksmen in the state, making a team-high 64 3-pointers at a 48.5% clip. Sancomb averages 12.1 points per game.

Junior Nico Kusic provides great defensive effort and has stepped up as a ball-handler at times this season, averaging 7.6 points per game, while senior Steven Brodegard has been a big body inside on defense and on the glass. He averages 4.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.

Riley Taylor has made 21 3-pointers off the bench this season for Central, shooting 43.8% from behind the arc, while freshman Nahiem Shepherd has worked his way into the rotation as the year has gone on.

“Max has stepped up big time this year,” Stephens said. “Luke is a very good player, does a lot of good things for us too. Steven Brodegard doesn’t get a lot of the attention, but he does what we need him to do. He gets in there and is a good defender inside, rebounds the ball for us. He scores when he gets chances, but he’s pretty comfortable with his role knowing that what he does definitely contributes. Nico’s been playing better lately, with– you get to teams where they’re going to try to take Eli and Luke away, and those other guys have got to be able to step up a little bit.”

“All those guys in the starting lineup have been able to do that. Riley Taylor coming off the bench, gives us a pretty good lift, especially offensively. And Nahiem is really starting to understand what he can do and what he needs to do. We’re getting good contributions from everybody.”

Wheeling Central’s first test will be the Frankfort Falcons (15-9), who the Maroon Knights did not see this season. Falcons senior Jeremy Phillips averages 23 points per game to lead the Falcons. Phillips became Frankfort’s all-time leading scorer in February. Kycin Waites is second on the team with 16.7 points per game.

“Once you get down there, the eight teams that are down there are usually pretty good teams,” Stephens said. “They’ve had to win some games to get there. We’ve seen them on tape a few times, and they got some kids that can score. They like to push the ball up the floor a little bit.

“Defensively, we’re going to have to be on top of our game. We’re going to have to be able to go out and score. I think for us it’s always being able to guard and being able to rebound. If you do those two things, your offense can have a little bit of an off night, you can still win games.”

As the defending champs, the top seed in the tournament, and with an undefeated record, the rest of the Class AA field may see Wheeling Central as having a target on their backs.

Not so for the Maroon Knights themselves, though.

“Not really,” Stephens said, when asked about feeling extra pressure in the tournament. “I mean, we’ve gone down there before and been the one seed– we’ve never been undefeated– but to these guys’ credit, we really haven’t said much about that all year. We were just more concerned with that next game, doing what we needed to do to try and get a win there.

“The wins just started to stack up a little bit. But, it’s a pretty determined bunch, it’s a group that really wants to win. They don’t want to lose in anything. I mean, even when we’re practicing and they’re competing against each other, they really don’t like to lose.”

The two-seed in Class AA is Wyoming East, the three-seed is Bluefield, and the four-seed is Doddridge County. No. 5 is Wayne, No. 6 is Petersburg, and No. 7 is Logan.

After Tuesday’s game, the winner of Wheeling Central-Frankfort will be set up to play in a Friday semifinal against the winner of Doddridge County-Wayne. That game will be played at 1 p.m.

“There’s no gimmies when you get to this point,” Stephens said. “Wyoming East is very good. Bluefield, Wyoming East, and James Monroe were all in the same region, so we knew only two of those were going to come out. Wyoming East, Bluefield, those are both pretty good teams. And then, you know, the other team in our region who we didn’t play, Doddridge, you know, the top four are strong for sure. And like I said, those other four teams are good teams too and, you know, there’s always some upsets down there.”