Williamstown’s Caleb Atkinson (21) is guarded by Wheeling Central’s Eli Sancomb during Friday’s game. (Photo by Nick Henthorn)

WHEELING — The last time that the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights and Williamstown Yellowjackets boys basketball teams met, it was in the WVSSAC Class AA state championship.

Friday on Coach Skip Prosser Court, it was two different iterations of the two teams, and it was once again the Maroon Knights getting the better of things as Wheeling Central cruised to a 90-49 home victory over the Yellowjackets.

Wheeling Central senior Eli Sancomb turned in yet another impressive statline with 23 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, but it was a team effort for Central in getting out to an early lead and running away with the game Friday.

“We knew coming in that they were maybe the best team in the state, regardless of class,” Williamstown head coach Scott Sauro said. “They definitely have the best player. We knew it was gonna be tough for us. Our team is pretty inexperienced, pretty young, so we were trying to take the Sancomb brothers away as best we could. We played a combination defense. When we did that, those other guys, credit to them, stepped up and made shots.”

Wheeling Central led 20-9 after the first quarter and 43-24 at halftime. While Eli Sancomb still scored 10 points in the half, the entire Central lineup was firing on all cylinders from outside in the first half. Across the first two quarters of play, Luke Sancomb, Max Olejasz and Riley Taylor each made two 3-pointers, and Nico Kusic made one while scoring 11.

“Olejasz hit some shots, Kusic hit a three,” Sauro said. “Their other guys they brought in off the bench hit some perimeter shots that we kind of, in order for us to be in this game, we were gonna need them to miss some of those, and they didn’t. That’s what good teams do, that’s what championship teams do, their role players step up and make plays and that’s what they did.”

Olejasz scored 11 in the third quarter alone, including a baseline two-handed slam dunk with a minute left to put Central ahead 77-34.

Olejasz finished with 19 points, five rebounds and a block. Kusic had 13, Taylor scored 11, and Luke Sancomb scored nine with four assists.

“Part of that went back to the defense they were playing,” Wheeling Central head coach Mel Stephens said of his team’s well-rounded offense. “They were definitely trying to take Eli and Luke away, which they did to a certain extent. You know, if those guys don’t make those shots, then maybe the game goes differently. We have a lot of confidence in all those guys to be able to shoot the ball and make shots.

“The other good thing was we were able to get some of those guys that haven’t gotten a lot of playing time so far this year, a chance to get some real good minutes in the fourth quarter there. And, you know, we had Dylan Blatt come out and make some good shots and I thought that group played pretty well too.”

Caleb Atkinson led Williamstown with 12 points. Dom Strcula scored nine with three 3-point makes.

Central shot 61% from the floor on the game while Williamstown shot 29% from the field. The Maroon Knights had just two team turnovers going into the fourth quarter.

“I thought we played really well,” Stephens said. “I mean, as far as a rematch, if, if we’d had our same guys, they’d have had their same guys, then that would’ve been a rematch, but they lost a lot from their team last year. But coach Sauro does a great job with his kids and they play hard. That was our biggest concern coming in. I thought we got off to a good start, came out of halftime and kind of extended a little bit. Shot the ball really well. Shared the ball really well. You know, I told those guys, we had 20-some assists and I said, you know, it’s great you make great passes, but part of that, to get an assist, you have to have guys finish and we were able to do a pretty good job of finishing tonight.”

Wheeling Central (8-0) will prepare to host North Marion on Jan. 16. Williamstown (4-3) returns home to face Tyler on Jan. 13.