Gilmer girls headed back to Charleston
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GLENVILLE -- The Gilmer County girls are headed back to the state capitol.
After overcoming a sloppy start to Friday night's Class A, Section II title tilt, the Titans cruised to a 75-48 win over the visiting Moorefield Yellowjackets. Now, GCHS (20-5) enters state quarterfinal action as the No. 3 seed against No. 9 Wheeling Central Catholic at 9 a.m. next Thursday.
The path to making it there saw the Titans win their first Section II championship since 2017, and big performances put the game out of reach. Trinity Bancroft led the way, as she tallied 23 points in the win. On the subject of how her team overcame a multitude of turnovers in the first half, she knew they had to control the tempo and create better passing opportunities.
"I just felt like we needed to control the tempo and speed the game up," she said. "Once we got ahead (18-7 after the first quarter), we just kept up the momentum. We just had to take care of our passes, and take control. This feels great. I'm excited. We're gonna take it one game at a time and see what happens in Charleston."
Moorefield (12-14) had its season come to a close with the loss, but they fought back to only be down 29-22 at halftime. To close the half, Moorefield's Lindsey Rinker went coast-to-coast and flipped up a shot in the paint that went in at the buzzer. Then, Gilmer County's shots from beyond the arc started dropping.
Grace Wellings finished the contest with 21 points, and she buried five of her team's six triples. After Bancroft hit the first one to open up second-half scoring, Wellings hit the next pair of 3-balls to balloon the Gilmer advantage to 38-22 with 6:13 remaining in the third. In another third-period run, Malaysia Morgan hit a couple shots, en-route to her 12-point night. She was joined in unison with Wellings, who drained a couple more 3s to contribute to an 11-0 run. That gave GCHS a 49-26 advantage with less than two minutes left in the frame, as Wellings' four long-balls slammed the door on any possible Moorefield comeback.
"Shucks, I'm just glad that I was actually hitting, tonight," Wellings said of her night on the perimeter. "It was the right night to be hitting. Oh man, going (to the state tournament in Charleston) freshman year was a blast, but going my senior year is even better. Just the energy in here was great. Honestly, I think we have a chance. I'm very excited, and it's a great opportunity for us."
For head coach Amy Chapman, her team delivered when it counted in sectional tournament time. Her girls are back, and she was excited for everthing yet to come in Charleston.
"Their hard work and effort all year has paid off," Chapman said of her Titans. "I'm so proud of this group. They're amazing young ladies, and they deserve this. I think they just needed to settle down (going into the second half). We've prepared for this all year. We played some big games, so we were ready. We definitely want to make some noise and have some fun when we're in Charleston."
Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com