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Weir High nabs first victory

Luka Haught

WEIRTON — Down by four points at halftime, Weir High outscored John Marshall by 14 in the third quarter and hung on going down the stretch to get the first win of the season, 63-60, Tuesday on the Ron “Fritz” Williams Court inside the Carl R. Hamill Fieldhouse.

In the lead 40-30 after that disastrous Monarch third quarter, the Red Riders went ahead 46-32 with 7:15 left in the fourth, then had to get some fortuitous bounces and keep their cool in the final two minutes of the game to up a first win of the young season.

“My guys worked hard tonight to earn their first win of the season,” said veteran coach Mike Granato. “We wanted to go up-tempo because John Marshall is pretty good in their half-court offense, but after we got that big lead in the fourth I wanted to slow it down. Maybe we slowed it down too soon, but then we missed a couple of layups late along with making only 12 of 20 foul shots in the fourth quarter. But it was a much-needed win and I’m proud of the way my kids played tonight.”

After taking that four-point lead into the locker room at the break, the Monarchs went stone cold in the third quarter, making only two free throws.

In the meantime, senior point guard Luka Haught caught fire and scored 15 of his game-high 20 in the third period to lead the Red Riders. Then, it was junior Dakota Nutter, who took over coming off the bench, scoring Weir High’s first six points of the fourth quarter.

“What a lift that was,” Granato said.

And it was much needed because, after Nutter canned two free throws to give the Red Riders their largest lead of the game at 46-32, the Monarchs caught fire and had the score down to 61-60 on senior Ryan Campbell’s second 3-ball in the final minute of the game.

“When Ryan gets his feet set, he’s something else,” said Monarch coach Chad Clutter. “They just left the wrong guy open. You never know. If a guy like that can come into the game and score, those are bonus points. Ryan is one of those hard-nosed kids that works hard every day in practice and will do whatever you ask him to do.

“They (Weir High) sped us up and got us out of our mode there in the third quarter. That kind of threw us off but we got it back into our mode in fourth quarter to make that comeback and we really should have tied it up to throw the game into overtime. We had our chances, but that’s the way the ball bounces. They do a great job here. They were 0-2 coming into this game and fought for a win and that’s what they got. We have University coming to us Friday so we’ll just keep plugging away till February and see what happens.”

The Red Riders, who are loaded with players who were on the Weir High football team that went deep in the playoffs and haven’t had much time together, were led by Haught’s 20 points. Senior Reed Reitter worked hard inside against a tall Monarch front line and finished with 16 points and nine rebounds.

“Let’s put this early season in perspective,” Granato said. “We’ve had 10 practices with this group, everybody is there except the two that are injured, Sebastian Spencer and Brodie McUmar. We’ve now played three games and the difference between this one and the other two losses is like night and day. That’s a credit to the kids because they have sucked it up with guys taking on new roles and stepping to the plate and doing big things.”

Things got a little tight for the Red Riders when the game got down to the final minute. Haught’s driving jumper with 1:01 left gave the Red Riders a 59-54 lead.

That’s when Campbell entered the scene 10 seconds later with his first 3 from the left wing area. Weir High senior Deon Trupiano, who was only 4 of 10 from the foul line, knocked down two freebies to make it a two possession game at 61-57 with only 35 seconds remaining.

Campbell got open in the left corner and got nothing but net to cut the Red Rider lead to 61-60 at the 28 second mark. Trupiano missed two foul shots with 20 seconds on the clock and then the Red Riders got a little lucky. John Marshall’s 6-foot-4 senior Bryce Yoho, who had a dunk in the first half got the ball down low and turned to lay it in but lost the handle for the 17th Monarch turnover of the game.

Weir High junior Tanner Mikula made 1 of 2 from the foul line with 10.6 seconds left for a 62-60 Red Rider lead. Tyler Sadoski was fouled going to the basket trying to send the game into overtime with 3.9 seconds to go. He missed the first free throw and intentionally missed the second but Weir High’s Elijah Gillette grabbed the loose ball and was fouled. He made the second of two from the line for the final 3-point margin.

Weir High has a week off before hosting Madonna on Tuesday.

Weir High 63, John Marshall 60

John Marshall 15-13-2-30 — 60

Weir High 12-12-16-23 — 63

JOHN MARSHALL (1-1): Darrow 2 0-4 4, Reid 1 0-0 3, Miller 1 0-0 3, Yoho 5 3-8 13, Campbell 2 0-0 6, Norris 2 0-0 4, Sadoski 4 1-1 11, Fotzpatrick 0 3-6 3, Reilly 5 1-2 13. TOTALS: 22 8-21 60. 3-pointers: 8 (Campbell, Sadoski, Reilly 2 each, Reid, Miller); Rebounds: 29 (Yoho 8); Turnovers: 17.

WEIR HIGH (1-2): Haught 7 4-4 20, Gillette 1 2-4 9, Trupiano 2 4-10 8, McCay 1 0-1 2, Reitter 6 4-5 16, Nutter 2 2-4 6, Mikula 2 1-2 6, Buffington 0 1-2 1. TOTALS: 21 18-32 63. 3-pointers 3 (Haught 2, Mikula; Rebounds 43 (Reitter, Mikula 9 each); Turnovers: 15.

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