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Williamstown boys roll past Wood County Christian

Photo by Mike Morrison Williamstown’s Isaac Brown, who scored a game-high 24 points, goes up for a shot over Wood County Christian’s Luke Spencer Tuesday during the Yellowjackets’ 76-37 win over the Wildcats.

 

WILLIAMSTOWN — Wood County Christian knew full well heading into Tuesday night’s battle with neighbor Williamstown that finding a way to shut down guard Isaac Brown would be crucial to its success.

Brown, who spent his freshman year at Wood County Christian, proved to be no match for the Wildcats however as he scored 16 points in the first quarter alone and 24 in the first half as the Yellowjackets opened the game on an 18-0 run and never looked back en route to a 76-37 win in their season opener.

Brown knocked down four 3-pointers in the first quarter and a tenacious Wildcat defense forced eight Wildcat turnovers as the ‘Jackets quickly dashed any hopes that WCC may have had of scoring an upset win.

“They threw a little bit of a defense at us that we really weren’t all that familiar with in a diamond and one,” said Brown, who finished with a game-high 24 points, despite playing sparingly in the second half of the lopsided win. “We were able to work around that and get the ball in transition and score.”

After the ‘Jackets scored the first 18 points of the game, WCC scored the next four points, all by Luke Spencer before Brown connected for his third and fourth triple of the quarter to give the ‘Jackets a commanding 26-11 lead after one period of play.

While Brown was leading the ‘Jackets on offense, fellow senior Josh Folwell was doing the same with the defense as he came up with nine steals in the game including eight in the opening half.

“The guy is like a Swiss Army knife, he does a little bit of everything for us,” said Yellowjacket head coach Scott Sauro of Folwell, who finished the game with six points and a team-high four assists to go along with the nine steals. “He’s a big guy that can guard the post, shoot the 3 and just do alot of things that make us a better team.”

The “Jackets out-pointed Wood County Christian 19-5 in the second quarter to extend their lead to a comfortable 45-16 at the break.

Sauro allowed his starters to start the second half but emptied the bench early as the lead grew to 52-17.

The big win enabled Williamstown to get plenty of playing time for its entire roster as 12 different players scored.

“Everybody that went in I felt did something positive for us,” said Sauro, in his ninth season as head coach. “We got a lot of contribution from a lot of different guys.”

In addition to the 24 points, Brown finished with three assists, two steals and a pair of rebounds in a little more than half a game.

“I think he (Brown) is a really special player,” said Sauro. “When he was a sophomore with us he was more just like a shooter. Now he can come off a screen, attack a gap and can score going to the basket or hit the open guy. He has really expanded his game.”

Bryce Haer made all five of his field goal attempts to join Brown in double figures with 10 points while Cullen Cutright added nine.

D.J. Spencer scored all 14 of his points in the second half to pace Wood County Christian (0-2) while Luke Spencer and Garrett Napier added six apiece.

Williamstown will be back in action Friday night when it travels to Calhoun County, while WCC travels Thursday to Morgantown Christian.

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