March madness became March sadness for Oceana's storied program. The Indians' magical final hoop season ended in the semi-finals of the state high school tournament with a 65-44 loss to Wheeling Central last Friday afternoon. After a campaign in which the young OHS team showed a maturity which belied its years and climed to the top of the Class A ratings, youth seemed finally to take its toll. "We were drained after the first quarter," said Indians coach Jim Hopkins. "The emotion was so great. When you get emationally and mentally tired, it's hard to get back."
Central was up, 9-5 when Jacob Dailer started a 14-3 spurt for the Maroon Knights with a fast break bucket in the paint. By the time the run ended, on David Contraguerro's trey from the left side, the lead was 23-8. Ocenan's Joey Allen made a follow shot and Robert Repass hit two freethrows to cut it to 23-12 at the end of the first period.
Two of the Knights' three leading scorers, Dailer and Ricky Yahn, picked up their third personal fouls early in the second stanza. OHS mounted a 10-2 run and Brent Prichard's bucket inside with 3:33 left in the half narrowed the margin to 30-22. But Chili Bosley, whose buzzer beater gave Central a first round win over Williamson, made two fould shots and reserve Joel Moses scored his only points of the game to boost the lead back to 34-22. It was 37-26 at the break.
Contraguerro and Yahn combined for eight points as the Knights scored 10 straight midway through the third quarter to give their team a 52-31 bulge. Even relatively low percentage plays, like an alley oop pass to Yahn which made it 55-35, worked for Central. Holding a 25 point advantage heading into the final quarter, the Knights went to a spread offense. Both coaches substituted heavily in the closing moments. Phillip Rose put the last points in the Indians record book with two free throws at the 2:07 mark.
Central is a well-coached team, Hopkins reflected. "They knew what we were going to do, and they stopped us. We knew what they were going to do, but we didn't stop them. A lineup peppered with veterans gave the Knights an edge over his sophomore-dominated team, the coach noted. "Their senior leadership and the physicalness were the difference in the game."
Preparing for the rough-and-tumble of state tournament play takes experience, Hopkins observed. "We weren't state tournament-ready(in the sense that)your going to have to play physical," he said "We weren't strong enough physically to withstand that kind of play. We've just got to learn to handle this. I think this will make them hungrier(to get back)." We really wanted to win for the community," remarked Matt Cook. "They played better than us tonight. That's the way it goes."
Senior Matt Price was the only Indian in double figures with 10 points. Joey Allen had 8, while Cook and Brent Prichard scored 7 each.
Contraguerro let the Maroon Knights with 21 points. Yahn had 17. Oceana, 22-4 shot just 32 percent(16-53) from the floor and 44 percent(11-24) at the line.
Central connected on 52 percent of its attempts from the floor(22-42) and was 16-20(80 percent) from the line. With most of the Indians returning to play at Westside High next year, the new school's basketball future looks rosy. "I thing we have an excellent chance(to return to Charleston) if we work hard" Hopkins commented. We'll have to play some really good teams just to get here, We're going to give them a couple of weeks off and get back to work. If you don't you won't make it back here because those other teams are going to be working. Oceana won the school spirit award, and Prichard was named to the all-tournament team after the Class A final on Saturday..
