County rivalry to send one team to states

By Steve Keenan Sports Editor

CHARMCO — Based on regular season results, Fayetteville (10-7) is the favorite in Wednesday night’s Class A Region 3 co-final against Meadow Bridge (14-6) at Greenbrier West High School. Tip is set for 7 p.m.

On Feb. 22, Fayetteville posted a 74-47 victory over the Wildcats in Meadow Bridge in the two teams’ only meeting.

To the winner tonight goes a berth in next week’s Class A state tournament at Charleston.

Despite their favorite status, Pirate boys’ coach Larry Spangler says he’s warned his players not to expect Meadow Bridge to simply step aside and hand over the tournament berth to the Pirates without a struggle.

“We shot the ball pretty well over there,” said Spangler. “I didn’t have any idea the score would be like that.

“That was an earlier game; it will be much tougher this time.”

“They’ve got that big boy (Chris Gray) inside, and (Tyler) Bennett plays well for them,” he added. “We’ve been working on our defense, and definitely our free throws.

“Anything can happen in basketball.”

What happened earlier this year, says Meadow Bridge coach Ed McCall, was a trying game for his young team.

“We played them and it was a game in the middle of all that snow,” he said. “Most teams faced a similar situation and hadn’t played for awhile.

“We played decent against Richwood right after that. (Against Fayetteville) We picked a bad night to not play well and not be very focused.”

Fayetteville’s leading scorer, Nich Carte (over 20 points per game) “ignited us in the first game,” McCall said of Carte, who finished with 29 points that night. “He had every point they had in the first quarter.” Looking to Wednesday, he added, “We know exactly what they’re going to do. I hope we have some guys that want to guard him. I’m really tickled for Nich. He really loves to play basketball. I wish I had Nich Carte on my team.”

McCall feels Fayetteville presents several challenges for his squad. “There are a lot of things about their team I really like.” That includes senior floor leader MichaelAngelo Hernandez, whom McCall terms “probably as smart and as heady a player as you’re going to find. He’s a great leader.”

Corey Goodman, Dylan Young and Brandon Doyle also start for the Pirates, bringing veteran experience to the floor, and senior Drew Weis is among those providing valuable contributions off the bench. “That’s a lot of experience, a lot of savvy,” said McCall.

The Wildcats will counter with the versatile Bennett (about 16.0 points per game), sophomore Gray (11.0), senior Brandon Adkins and freshmen Cody White and Cole Porter. In addition to two freshmen in the starting rotation, Meadow Bridge’s next three players off the bench will probably be ninth-graders.

“We make classic errors directly due to inexperience and a lack of basketball intelligence,” McCall said.

Despite the topsy-turvy feel to the season in general, McCall is excited his team is in its current situation.

“They are probably going to have to miss a few shots and I know we’re really going to have to do some things with gusto,” he said. “You’re one game between you and getting to the state tournament.

“We’re right where we want to be.”

Both were top-seeded teams in their respective sections. Fayetteville defeated Valley and lost to Midland Trail in Section 1 play, while Meadow Bridge handled Montcalm and Iaeger in Section 2 action.

Meadow Bridge is hosting but its home court doesn’t have the necessary seating capacity to stage a boys tournament game, hence the move to neighboring Charmco.

Meadow Bridge last appeared in the state tournament two seasons ago, while Fayetteville advanced to the elite eight-team field in 2001-02.

— E-mail:

skeenan@register-herald.com

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