SPRING VALLEY — Wirt County battled to take a 16-15 advantage over Saint Joseph Central after the first quarter as guard Brayland Dawson hit two three pointers and Braden Whipkey added another to give them momentum. Unfortunately for the Tigers the air fell out of the ball as they only scored six points in the second quarter and the third quarter. The Irish got stronger as the game got longer on both sides of the court to win 60-35 and earn the WVSSAC Class A Region 4 Championship in the Wolves’ Den at Spring Valley High School.

“Well, the ball had to get to the middle. We knew they were going to play a lot of zone and we prepared well for that. Our intention was to get the ball in the middle and when they stepped up, we were going to kick it our or we had the layup and that made it really effective for us,” Irish head coach Josh Harris stated.

“Our gameplan was not to get in a halfcourt set. We wanted to run them out of here and use our speed. That is why we went small tonight a couple of different times because they had a lot of bigger guys than us. So, we wanted to run them out and make them sub (substitute). Then we would play our game and get them out of theirs.”

Irish Guard Micaiah Ehrim benefited the most from the gameplan as he was the game’s leading scorer with 20 points, grabbing five rebounds while creating one steal as he attacked the rim every opportunity, he had either laid it in or drawing a foul. He shot 8-10 from the charity strike for the game.

“We came into this game with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder because we knew that we had to win it for the Seniors. We all grew up as Freshmen and Sophomores. We made it to this point, and we knew we could not let the season end tonight. We knew to just come out hard and execute,” Ehrim stated.

“We tried to clear the lane out to give him that space and once he has it he has the green light to go all the way. If someone steps up, we have shooters in the corners ready to go, but Micaiah is hard to guard. He is very hard to guard,” stated coach Harris.

Irish forward Grady Painter had a double/double with 15 points and collecting 11 rebounds. He played relentlessly all over the floor as he made several gritty plays and was 4/4 at the free throw line.

“Every single day I just try to come out here and do what is best for my team. Tonight I missed some easy shots. I struggled. It is just part of the game, but I tried making up for that in other areas like getting rebounds and being in the right spot for my teammates,” Paynter stated.

His efforts were definitely noticed by coach Harris.

“He was very active on the rebounds tonight especially on the offensive side. I do not know how many offensive rebounds we had, but I know we had more than them. It gave us multiple extra possessions because of the way rebounded, and Grady probably led us in offensive rebounds tonight.”

Noah Keaton and Isiah Sanders also had key performances for the Irish as Keaton scored nine points while Sanders scored six points, grabbed seven rebounds, blocked two shots and forced one steal.

First year Wirt County head coach Chad Williams was very proud of his team.

“We knew they were a good team. Very athletic. We thought we could play a little big. We won the first quarter. At halftime, it was anybody’s game. You know the delay I believe hurt both teams (there was a 30-minute power delay due to local storms) It just kind of made things feel off. These boys, I love them all. I am their third coach in three years, and they learned my offense this year and we did have a good season. Coach (Roy) Alltop, it was a year ago from today that he had his incident. So, it was weighing on our minds too. He was with us. It just was not our time tonight.”

Braylan Dawson, Alex Bevel, and Jake Moore all scored seven points for the Tigers. Easton Wyre added five points and pulled down five rebounds.

Saint Joseph Central will move on to the boys WVSSAC State Tournament next week and coach Harris is looking forward to watching his team continue to compete.

“Fortunately, for our team a lot of the guys have been there before. I am really the only one who has not been to state’s yet. So, I am excited. It really does not matter who we play. We got to win three games to get it all. We are just excited for the opportunity.”