Wirt County ousted by Charleston Catholic
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CHARLESTON -- Charleston Catholic leaned on its defense in Wednesday's regional game against Wirt County Wednesday night, and the defense didn't disappoint.
Sophomore Mary Rushworth poured in 24 points and the Irish harassed Wirt County into 21% shooting Wednesday evening as they emerged with a 50-20 victory in the Class AA Region 4 co-finals at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Facility.
The win sends Catholic (12-11) into next week's state tournament as the No. 8 seed, setting up a quarterfinal game against No. 1 seed Wyoming East at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 7 at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center.
It's the fourth straight season in which the Irish have advanced to the state tournament and the fifth time in Wes Hevener's seven seasons as head coach. Wirt County (12-13), which hadn't reached the regional round since back-to-back appearances in 1999-2000, was seeking its first-ever berth to the girls state tournament.
Catholic limited Wirt to six field goals Wednesday and forced 19 turnovers, 13 of those steals by the Irish - including six by Rushworth and four by Aurelia Kirby.
"I thought we came out and literally played the best defensive game we've played all year,'' Hevener said. "Overall, I thought it was our best game of the season.
"The girls came out in the first couple minutes and it went back and forth - I think we were just working out some jitters - but, man, three minutes into the first quarter, I saw that light switch flick and I just knew. You could see it in their eyes - defensively, they were locked in. Not a lot of missed assignments. I thought we did a really good job with being in help [defense] and forcing them into difficult shots.''
Catholic led 28-8 at halftime as the Tigers were just 2 of 16 shooting from the floor and the Irish were 10 of 10 at the foul line. Things didn't get any better early in the second half for Wirt, as the Irish swiped the ball three straight times in the backcourt and soared down the floor for uncontested layups - two by Kirby and one by Rushworth.
"I think overall our strength of schedule this season [helped],'' Hevener said. "We played some really good offensive teams and we've been able to - not hold them in check - but we've been very competitive defensively with Nitro, St. Albans and Lewis County.
"I just feel like our girls, the last three weeks of the season, have not [just] bought into the defense, but have played really phenomenal defense and have been locked in on that side of the basketball. Tonight, the defense led to our offense. We got out on some of those steals and got into transition, just creating some easy opportunities for us.''
Sarah Rahin added 12 points as Catholic scored as many as 50 in a game for just the fourth time this season. Telina Williams grabbed a dozen rebounds for the Irish, who led 35-20 off the boards.
Catholic held the Tigers to less than half the 44 points per game scoring average they carried into the game. Skylar Bunch led Wirt with eight points and Ally Nicolais had six. D.J. White collected six rebounds.
"We didn't play very well in the first half,'' said Wirt County Jeremy Kerby. "We dug ourselves a hole. We knew coming in that Charleston Catholic didn't [let up] a whole lot of points. We got behind early and had to change a whole lot of what we were planning on doing, and it cost us in the long run. We didn't rebound the ball well enough. They had a lot more shots than we did.
"Overall, we weren't supposed to be here. We took over this program this year that won five games last year and didn't have a whole lot coming back. We had some girls that
bought into the system - four seniors who put their blood, sweat and tears into this and I respect each and every one of them. This program has been a doormat for a lot of people, but this group had big goals, and I'm proud of each and every one of them.''
Catholic won its quarterfinal game against Wheeling Central last year, but that stands as the lone state tournament victory in Hevener's first four trips. He doesn't foresee changing much in his team's approach this season.
"The message is the same as it is every single game,'' Hevener said. "We've got to come out and play 32 minutes of good basketball. I don't think it matters who we play. We've got to use the next couple days to get better fundamentally and try to get them into situations where we hope to be successful.''