Game-winning double sparks softball to 3-2 win over Oakland

Posted: Mar. 19, 2018 | Source: The Morehead News

Senior designated player Kylie Holton cranked an RBI double off the right centerfield wall in the sixth inning, and that proved to be the winning margin as the Morehead State softball team edged Oakland 3-2 in the final game of the Eagle Classic at University Field Sunday.

The Eagles moved to 16-6 in 2018, while the Golden Grizzlies slid to 6-14.

“We have been in quite a few tight games this year, and when we get in those games I feel our team has the confidence that we are going to pull it out,” said head coach David Williams. “We challenged them to go ahead and get that go-ahead run in the sixth. We got people on and we moved runners and got good at-bats. I think there is a quiet confidence with our team. They believe no matter what the situation is that someone will come through.”

Freshman right-fielder Paige Scruggs got the go-ahead inning kick-started with a one-out single. She stole second, and junior first baseman Allison Rager moved down to her position on a free-pass walk. Following a fielder’s choice ground out, Holton lifted a 2-0 pitch high and deep to right field. Oakland’s outfielder made a stabbing attempt for the ball at the wall, but it ricocheted off and allowed Scruggs to trot home with the eventual winning run.

Scruggs also collected the opening RBI of the game with a ground out in the first, and senior third baseman Ellen Barrett singled home center-fielder Aubrey Bennettto make it 2-0.

Senior pitcher Chelsea McManaway made the lead hold up until the top of the sixth when OU tied it with back-to-back RBI hits. McManaway improved to 11-2 with 11 more strikeouts today.

Six different Eagles tallied a hit apiece.

Morehead State is scheduled to host nationally-ranked Kentucky on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. Check MSUEagles.com, Twitter and Facebook (MSUEagles) for updates to the schedule due to incoming inclement weather.

WVU dominates Marshall, storms into Sweet 16

West Virginia forward Esa Ahmad (23) dunks during the second half against Marshall on Sunday in San Diego. AP photo

By: Mitch Vingle, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 19, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

SAN DIEGO — Jarrod West Sr. was in the Viejas Arena here on the campus of San Diego State University for Sunday night’s special matchup between Mountain State teams West Virginia and Marshall.

It was almost 20 years to the day he helped WVU stun then-Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins and the Bearcats with a 25-foot bank shot, sending the Mountaineers into the Sweet 16.

On Sunday, however, with West’s son Jarrod Jr. in Marshall’s lineup, there was no buzzer-beater. There was, in fact, very little drama whatsoever.

That’s because the Mountaineers (26-10) thoroughly dominated the Thundering Herd in the paint and everywhere else in a 94-71 rout, sending West Virginia to its third Sweet 16 appearance in the last four years. The fifth-seeded Mountaineers will now travel to Boston for a Friday matchup with No. 1 seed Villanova. The Big 12 will be sending one quarter of the teams to the Sweet 16, with WVU, Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech all going.

Sunday’s late affair was somewhat surprising not because West Virginia won — the Mountaineers were, after all, a 12.5-point favorite — but because of the decisiveness. After MU stunned No. 4 seed Wichita State here Friday, many expected a tight, emotion-filled battle. It turned out, however, to be much like the prior game before the controversial ending to the series. Back in 2015, Jevon Carter had 15 points to lead the Mountaineers to an 86-68 victory. MU standout and Charleston native Jon Elmore was then held to 14.

This time it was much of the same — and more for WVU. Carter led the Mountaineers in scoring with 28 on 10-of-18 shooting, while Elmore was held down for most of the game and finished with 15. West Virginia outrebounded Marshall 40-24.

“My teammates did an unbelievable job of getting me open,” Carter said. “I came off a lot of screens. I just played within the game. I just let the game come to me. I just let my defense turn into offense.”

“You’ve got to give them credit,” said MU coach Dan D’Antoni of WVU. “They’re tough.”

In sum, it was a runaway.

With 5:58 remaining, WVU was up by 31. And perhaps two second-half plays symbolized this one.

The first was when WVU was coming out of a timeout at the 13:46 mark. Junior Esa Ahmad threw an alley-oop pass to sophomore Sagaba Konate for a thunderous dunk.

The second was with 8:13 remaining. It was when red-hot Carter, deep in the left corner, took a pass, put up a trey and was fouled by Ot Elmore. The shot went in. And Carter gave a death stare to the crowd. He completed the 4-point play to give West Virginia a 30-point 77-47 lead.

The only bad note for the Mountaineers was Wes Harris’ clash with MU’s Jannson Williams at 8:21 of the first half. Harris was held out the rest of the game with concussion-like symptoms and Williams was reportedly sent to the hospital.

Otherwise, the night was almost completely owned by WVU.

“We did it for the state,” said Mountaineer forward Lamont West, who finished with 18. “We just wanted to go out there and play hard. We didn’t want to go home with an ‘L.’ We just did what we do. We played hard and came out with a ‘W.’”

As has been the case, it seems, in every WVU game of late, the Mountaineers had a cold hand shooting early. Marshall, meanwhile, hit three of its first four attempts – all treys – and moved out to an 8-point, 16-8 lead on a Darius George 3-pointer at 13:56.

The icebreaker for West Virginia, though, was Lamont West’s three right after that of George.

The Mountaineers were then off and running, both figuratively and literally.

The press was working to the tune of 11 first-half Marshall turnovers, which turned into 15 points. Also, Sagaba Konate’s presence at the back end of the press appeared to bother Marshall’s shooters. The Thundering Herd converted just 8 of 26 (30.8 percent) of their shots in the span and failed to score a field goal in the last 4:14.

West Virginia, meanwhile, got 3-pointers from West, James “Beetle” Bolden, Daxter Miles and Carter to fuel a 23-2 run (which, on the back end, was 19-0), completed on an Ahmad tip-in. MU’s C.J. Burks hit a pair of free throws at 4:39 to snap the run.

West Virginia, though, wasn’t done. The Mountaineers stretched their lead to 42-25 points at the end of the half. They took 38 shots in the half compared to the Herd’s 26. They outrebounded Marshall by a whopping 27-11 and had 18 points in the paint. Carter had 11 points to lead seven WVU players in first half scoring. The Herd’s leader, Jon Elmore, was 1 of 5 shooting and had but three points. MU’s lowest first-half point production before West Virginia was 26 versus Old Dominion.

West Virginia outscored MU in the second half by 52-46.

“Just happy to be able to keep playing,” Carter said. “This is March. We did what we came here to do. But we don’t want to just go to the Sweet 16, we want to win it all. We’re going to watch a lot of film and get ready for the next one.”

All-time, West Virginia now leads the series with Marshall 34-11.

Mitch Vingle can be reached at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter@MitchVingle.

NCAA tournament: WVU thumps Murray State, to face Marshall in 2nd round

West Virginia forward Teddy Allen (13) shoots as Murray State forward Terrell Miller Jr. (0) defends during WVU’s win over the Racers on Friday in the NCAA tournament’s first round. Photo by: Denis Poroy

By: Staff Reports | Posted: Mar. 16, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

The Capital Classic lives again, albeit in California.

WVU got 21 points and eight assists from Jevon Carter to cruise past Murray State 85-68 in the first round of the NCAA tournament in San Diego. That sets up a second-round showdown with in-state rival Marshall, a game that hasn’t been played since 2015, but will have its highest stakes Sunday.

The winner of Sunday’s matchup earns a berth in the NCAA’s Sweet 16.

Return to wvgazettemail.com later this evening for more coverage of this game.

Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.

Marshall shocks Shockers for first NCAA win in program history

Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni reacts during the first half of a first-round game against Wichita State at the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, Friday, March 16, 2018, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

By: Doug Smock, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 16, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

SAN DIEGO — For perhaps the first time in his 70 years on this Earth, Dan D’Antoni didn’t know what to say.

(more…)

WVU hoping for hot start, win in NCAA tournament

By: Mitch Vingle, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 15, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

SAN DIEGO — The WVU’s men’s basketball team had no problems getting to the Pacific Coast and this sun-splashed city.

It’s landed. It’s practiced. It’s met the media.

Now, though, the goal of the No. 5 seed Mountaineers is simply to make a splash at the NCAA tournament — beginning at approximately 4 p.m. Friday at the Veijas Arena on the campus of San Diego State University. The game will be televised by TNT.

“We’re ready,” said WVU guard James “Beetle” Bolden. “We talked a little bit as a team. We’re focused and I think we’re ready to go out there and play.”

The Mountaineers (24-10) enter with a final Associated Press ranking of No. 15 and a current USA Today coaches poll ranking of No. 14. WVU’s opponent is No. 12 seed Murray State (26-5), which won the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships.

The focus in WVU’s camp, however, has been squarely on the practices leading into the first round. Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins this week pointed back to 2016 and the less-than-stellar practices heading into the loss to Stephen F. Austin. On Thursday, though, he seemed somewhat pleased.

“We’re better than we were then,” he said. “They could have been better. They could have been worse. … We were OK [Wednesday]. Actually, I thought we were pretty good. Most of us. Everybody wasn’t, but most of them were.”

Where it appears West Virginia will have to be very good on Friday is against Murray State’s trio of 3-point shooters. The Racers are led by point guard Jonathan Stark, the OVC Player of the Year and tournament MVP. He led Murray State’s league in scoring for a second straight year at 21.8 points a game.

Also, though, Terrell Miller, a 6-foot-8 wide body, can step out and hit the trey. He’s averaging 14.7 points and 8.2 rebounds. MSU as a team is hitting 37.9 percent of their 3-point attempts (WVU is at 35.3), but Stark (41 percent), Miller (39.2) and Hawkins (39.5) combine to hit 40.2 percent of the time.

“We worked a lot on getting back in transition,” said Mountaineer forward Teddy Allen. “Getting to the shooters. Know who the shooters are. We went over the scouting report a lot, so we know who can shoot and who we need to find in transition.”

On the other end, Murray State will have to handle West Virginia’s press. The Racers run a two-point-guard offense, which should help break that, but MSU coach Matt McMahon said Thursday his team must be prepared.

“We haven’t played anyone to the level of what they do,” McMahon said of the Mountaineers. “They’re second in the country in forced turnover percentage — and they hit you for 40 straight minutes. We’ve played against pressing teams, but we know this will be different.”

WVU is now No. 10 nationally in turnovers forced at 16.5 a game. Murray State is averaging 11.9 turnovers.

McMahon, meanwhile, pointed to rebounding as a key.

“I think it’s a big factor in winning,” he said. “We’ve been a good rebounding team all season long. Now this is about to be another level.”

West Virginia is No. 5 nationally in offensive rebounds, averaging 14 a game.

In addition, there are individual matchups. WVU team leader Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles will have to contain Murray State point guards Stark and Ja Morant. And vice versa. Also, Mountaineer sophomore Sagaba Konate will have to handle Miller. And vice versa.

“He’s a big body,” Miller said of Konate. “He plays hard. That’s all I’ve seen on him on film.”

Aside from all, though, there’s a matter of how each team handles the spotlight of March Madness.

“I think that’s been one of our strengths of our team,” McMahon said of MSU. “The ability to focus on the next most important thing, the task at hand, not getting too caught up in the moment and the hoopla that surrounds this great tournament.”

Huggins was asked about the hype as well as the travel.

“I think if anybody is equipped to do it, we can do it after what we do in our [Big 12] league,” Huggins said. “We fly across the country constantly, so our guys are pretty used to it.”

Last year, the Mountaineers were eliminated in the Sweet 16 in San Jose, California, by tournament runner-up Gonzaga, 61-58. It was West Virginia’s seventh Sweet 16 appearance since 1998 and 10th overall.

Mitch Vingle can be reached at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.

NCAA tournament: Marshall trying to overcome Wichita State’s experience

Marshall guard Jon Elmore – AP photo

By: Doug Smock, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 15, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

SAN DIEGO — The degree of advantage in talent 16th-ranked Wichita State men’s basketball team may have over Marshall can be debated, but this cannot: The Shockers have an enormous edge in experience.

When the Thundering Herd takes the Viejas Arena floor at 1:30 p.m. Friday, it will do so with two freshmen starting and one other in the seven-man rotation.

And there is this: The entire team is playing its first NCAA tournament game, as the program has not sniffed the Big Dance in 31 years. Even Rondale Watson, who began his career at Wake Forest, has not played in the event.

Wichita State (25-7), a double-digit favorite in this 4-vs.-13 matchup, has a mountain of experience. This is the seventh consecutive trip to the NCAAs under coach Gregg Marshall, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

The Shockers have six seniors, including four regular starters and two who have started at least two games. Nine of the 10 players who saw NCAA action last year are back, and six current Shockers have played in multiple tourneys.

Big man Shaquille Morris, Zach Brown and Rashard Kelly are playing in their fourth tournament in a Wichita uniform, and Connor Frankamp is also playing his fourth tourney, the first coming while he was a freshman at Kansas.

Wichita State’s Marshall is coaching his 14th tourney, including seven at Winthrop, so he has the experience advantage on most coaches. And he admits this is one of the easier teams he has coached.

“Yeah, this is a very experienced group,” Marshall said Thursday. “You have six seniors [and] Markis McDuffie and Landry Shamet are in their third years, so we have a lot of college basketball experience. This group, they know what they’re trying to do as well as the coaching staff.

“We’ve had a lot of good senior classes in the last seven, eight years, and their group has been very special in their own right, and now it would be nice to put a bow on top and make a deep run.”

The Herd (24-10) aims to halt that, and knows the size of the task ahead. But MU is riding a four-game winning streak, including a bye-capturing win over 24th-ranked Middle Tennessee and a Conference USA championship game thriller over Western Kentucky.

Certainly, the Herd has grown up in the past four months.

“I would say it’s a matter of focus,” said top scorer Jon Elmore. “With our young guys and kind of early on in the season, we had our bumps. But as the season progressed, you see those young guys learning. They’re sharper, more fluent in what we want to do, are more fluid.”

What the Herd will throw at the Shockers is its NBA-style offense that opponents don’t face often. The Shockers’ are playing at a faster pace this season, but …

“I’m not sure we play as fast as them,” said Shamet, the point guard who leads the team in scoring with 15 points per game. “In film, we have seen them come down and take the first semi-open look they get. They play a unique style of basketball which is not very identical to ours.”

Marshall compared MU’s pace to those at Savannah State, Oklahoma and South Dakota State. The Shockers pounded Savannah 112-66 and beat South Dakota State 95-85, but lost 91-83 to Oklahoma.

“Teams that get up and shoot 3s, we struggled with all three of them. It’s hard to guard,” Marshall said. “When they play at that tempo and have that skill across the front line and into the backcourt, it’s difficult to guard.

“You have to be a tremendous defensive team.”

MU has to continue its improved defensive play, but that will not be easy. Shamet and Morris are all-American Athletic Conference performers, and the 6-foot-8, 279-pound Morris may present the most problems.

When the Herd loses, it is often because of stellar inside play by the opposition. Some examples:

William & Mary’s Nathan Knight scored 31 points and pulled down 12 rebounds against the Herd;

Western Kentucky’s Dwight Coleby and Justin Johnson combined for 45 points and 22 boards in a Hilltopper rout, a game where WKU scored 70 points in the paint;

Coleby hit for 18 points and 13 boards in the regular-season rematch;

In the Herd’s last loss, Alabama-Birmingham’s Chris Cokley and William Lee combined for 38 points and 20 rebounds.

MU will have to match up with Wichita’s muscle and “Play Angry” mentality. It must match up with all that experience.

“They come into the tournament like this and expect to win and make a run deep,” Elmore said. “That is what we’re expecting to do, but we know it is going to be a tough matchup. But we are excited. We think we match up pretty well.

“Hopefully, it is a high-scoring affair and we come out on top.”

Doug Smock can be reached at dougsmock@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dougsmock, and read his Inside Marshall Sports blog at blogs.wvgazettemail.com/dougsmock.

 

2018 Annual Gold-Blue Spring Game Set

By: Mike Montoro | Posted: Feb. 16, 2018 | Source: WVU Sports

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University will hold its annual Gold-Blue Spring Game presented by U.S. Cellular on Saturday, April 7, at 1 p.m., at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Tickets are available in advance for $10 each and can be purchased online at WVUGAME.com or by calling 1-800-WVU GAME. WVU students will be admitted free with a valid ID. Information on the stadium, parking, online streaming and television broadcast will be released at a later date.

A portion of the proceeds from the Gold-Blue Game once again will benefit WVU Medicine Children’s. Since 1984, the Mountaineers have donated more than $740,000 to WVU Medicine Children’s.

Softball looks to keep up winning ways this weekend

Posted: Feb. 23, 2017 |  The Morehead News

Sporting a 6-2 mark to open the season, the Morehead State softball team is back in action this weekend at the Kennesaw State Bobbie Bailey Memorial Tournament.

The Eagles face Florida A&M for a doubleheader Friday at noon, tangle with the host Owls on Saturday at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and finish with a matchup versus Rutgers on Sunday at 10 a.m. (more…)

MSU softball sweeps Central Michigan

Posted: Feb. 12, 2018 | Source: The Morehead News

Morehead State softball picked up another win early in its 2018 campaign, but recorded its first loss, bringing its record to 3-1 on the season.

The Eagles defeated Central Michigan for the second time this season, recording a 3-2 victory on a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning. Appalachian State handed Morehead State its first loss after a 15-8 late-night contest at Sikes Field.

MSU 3, CMU 2

Freshman Paige Scruggs sealed the win for Morehead State, but senior pitcher Chelsea McManaway carried the Eagles with a full game in the circle. McManaway struck out eight, allowing only one earned run among 24 batters faced.

Each of Morehead State’s three runs were scored off home runs by freshman players. Kalle Coleman homered to left center in the top of the second, followed by a two-run game-winner from Scruggs in the final inning. Allison Rager recorded three hits in four at-bats, while Taylor Wheeler logged two hits and one run in three at-bats.

ASU 15, MSU 8

Rager began the Eagles’ second matchup in the circle, pitching the game’s first 2.2 innings. Rager allowed nine hits and seven runs, striking out four and walking one. A trio of Eagles relieved Rager, led by 2.2 innings from freshman Megan Murphy. Rager received the loss on the day, brining her season record to 1-1.

In a game-high five at-bats, Taylor Wheeler logged two hits and two runs with a solo homer in the first inning. Rager took the plate with one run and a hit in three at-bats, complemented by two RBIs. Coleman recorded three hits in four at-bats, bringing home one run and two RBIs.