Pictured is the Williamstown boys basketball team, which defeated Webster County in the Little Kanawha Conference Night of Champions Saturday at the Waco Center. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

GLENVILLE – For Williamstown, good things within the Little Kanawha Conference seem to happen in twos.

Saturday night in the championship game of the LKC Night of Champions, the Yellowjackets played about as close to a perfect first half as it comes, and successfully defended their title with a convincing 81-53 win over Webster County.

Since 2015, Williamstown has captured a total of six titles (2015-16, 2020-21 and 2023-24).

“At the beginning of the season, our first goal is to win our league,” Williamstown coach Scott Sauro said after his No. 4-ranked Yellowjackets improved to 18-2. “You know you are going to get a good opponent here (at the LKC NOC). I never want anybody to take these conference championships for granted.

“We are super proud to be here and super proud to represent the conference.”

Williamstown’s Cruz Isaly goes up for a basket against Webster County during Saturday’s Little Kanawha Conference Night of Champions at the Waco Center. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

Jayden Bryant gave a preview of things to come for the Williamstown offense by knocking down three 3-pointers as the Yellowjackets built a 22-10 lead after one quarter.

Then in the second quarter it was like the grand finale of fireworks compliments of Parker Schramm which buried Webster County. The junior accounted for six of the team’s eight 3-pointers in the period and scored 22 of his game-high 31 points as the Yellowjackets outscored the Highlanders 30-9 and pulled away to a 52-19 halftime lead.

Schramm got his footing for the arena earlier in the evening after participating in the Top Gun 3-point shooting competition.

“Teammates fed me the ball – wasn’t anything I did, they were just finding me whenever I was open,” Schramm said. “If someone on our team is hot, we just keep feeding him the ball. We do that all the time. Says a lot about the unselfishness about our team — not one person has to score for our team to win.”

In the first half alone, the numbers were staggering. Williamstown shot 58 percent (11-of-19) from beyond the arc and recorded an assist on 15 of 18 total field goals.

The quarterback of the Yellowjacket offense, Cruz Isaly, finished with a team-high five assists to go with nine points and four rebounds. Having teammates like Bryant and Schramm is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of scoring weapons at his disposal.

“I enjoy playing with this offense – we plow teams,” Isaly said. “We are getting points up. I love it.

Asked on this thoughts about the torrid start, Isaly replied, “Honestly, no. I didn’t think that was going to happen. It was great. I was excited to see that score.

“We needed this going into next week playing St. Albans and Wheeling Central Catholic. We want to make a deep run and keep going. We want something bigger than the LKC; we want that state championship.”

The defensive stats weren’t too shabby either. Webster County, ranked No. 3 in Class A because of the strength of their shooters, converted just 26 percent (8-of-31), from the floor and committed 10 turnovers. The Highlanders, who were limited to three 3-pointers by the break, took advantage of some Williamstown defensive changes in the second half and tacked on another six treys.

“We were really locked in that first half,” Sauro said. “We followed the defensive game plan really well. That’s probably something people didn’t see as much of. I thought our guys did a terrific job of executing our defensive gameplan.

“Offensively, it’s not anybody’s point – it’s Williamstown’s points. That’s what we preach and our kids really buy into that.”

Also scoring in double figures for Williamstown were Bryant with 15 points and Tyler Keiser coming off the bench to contribute another 10, including five free throws with the clock stopped at 3:40 in the third quarter following a Webster County technical.

Triplett led Webster County (17-4) with 24 points, while Leichliter added 12 points, all coming in the second half.