George Washington's Noah Lewis gets ready to shoot against Spring Mills in the Class AAAA state championship game. (Photo courtesy of the WVSSAC)

They are two players whose similarities are easy to identify.

Each led his team to a state championship, and each was named MVP at the state tournament in his respective classification last month in Charleston.

Both also captained his classes all-state team, released earlier this week

Each averaged right around 30 points per game and over 10 rebounds.

Both are headed to Division 1 schools.

Wheeling Central's Eli Sancomb handles the ball against Frankfort in the Class AA state quarterfinals. (Photo courtesy of the WVSSAC)

Now Wheeling Central’s Eli Sancomb and George Washington’s Noah Lewis share another similarity.

The two were named co-winners of the Evans Award, presented Friday to the state basketball player of the year by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.

It marks the first time since 1994 that the Evans was awarded to two players. That year DuPont’s Randy Moss and Woodrow Wilson’s Anthony Scruggs were named.

“It’s an honor, I kind of look at it as a team honor, I wouldn’t be here without them,” Sancomb said. “To share it with Noah, who is a great player, is cool, plus all the history around it.”

The pair were teammates just a couple years ago on a state travel team.

“It’s an honor to win this award and to share the honor with (Sancomb) makes it special,” Lewis said. “We played together on the West Virginia Gold. Spending basically the whole summer together we became friends. I wasn’t expecting it, but it is an honor.”

For Sancomb, it’s his second Evans Award. He was tabbed in 2025 after Central beat Williamstown 59-40 in the state championship game. This year Sancomb led Central to a repeat Class AA title, beating Wyoming East.

Sancomb is a basketball virtuoso.

Scoring, rebounding, passing, defense, he did it all.

He finished the season averaging 30.8 points per game, 11.7 rebounds and 7.7 assists. He shot 51.5 percent from the floor (233-451) and 86.9 from the foul line (296-237) and had 37 3 pointers.

Sancomb set the assist record with 16 in a state tournament victory against Frankfort in the quarterfinals and had 41 points when he was taken out late in the semifinal round against Wayne, finishing nine points shy of the record 50, set by Mullens’ Herbie Brooks in 1983.

He is also an elite defender.

That, Wheeling Central coach Mel Stephens said, is the essence of Sancomb’s game.

“Eli has the ability to do whatever it is we need to do in any game,” Stephens said. “Whether it is passing, (like he did setting the assist record in the first round of the state tournament), or scoring, (as he did in the semifinals) or defense (like that provided in the state championship game on Wyoming East’s leading scorer Broc Johnson, holding him scoreless) he had a knack for identifying what we needed on that specific night to help the team win.”

It’s a rare trait instilled in him by his dad Danny, the head coach at Cal, Pa., about 45 minutes from Wheeling, where the elder Sancomb had coached previously.

“He told me if I wanted to be a player that colleges would want, I had to become a great defensive player,” said Sancomb.

Sancomb, will play at Liberty University next season.

The 6-5 combo player missed his freshman year with a torn ACL and a hand injury cost him the end of his sophomore season.

“That was tough, you want to be out there with your friends, but I was able to work on other parts of my game,” Sancomb said. “I worked on the things I could do. And I think that really played a part in becoming a more complete player.”

Lewis, a 6-7 forward, averaged 29.7 points and 10.4 rebounds. He shot 61.8 percent from the floor (294 of 476) and 70.9 from the foul line (127-179).

George Washington’s coach Rick Green, who has coached state two former state players of the year, Patrick O’Malley, and Jon Elmore, said Lewis continually added to his game.

“Noah came to us with a very strong fundamental game, and each year he added a different skill to his game, whether it was passing, ball handling, rebounding. Every year he got better and made himself a great player.”

Lewis will play at Wright State next season.

Lewis had a 46-point game against Hurricane but considers setting the school for points his greatest accomplishment outside the state championship. He finished with 1,737 points, scoring his 1,000th point in the first game of the season and set the school record in a late season game against Morgantown which solidified the top seed for the Patriots in the Class AAAA bracket.

He scored 742 points this season.

“Nothing beats being in the court with your teammates with 18 seconds left, knowing you were about to realize your dream of winning a state championship,” Lewis said. “I never set out to win (the Evans). And I wouldn’t have lost sleep if I hadn’t. I was talking to my parents before the season and one thing I wanted to do was break the school’s all-time scoring record. If I had a goal, outside of winning the championship that was it.”

He did it quite emphatically on in a victory over Morgantown at the end of the season, a victory that propelled the Patriots to the top seed in the Class AAAA state tournament.

Greene said one shot typified Lewis’ career with the Patriots.

“We were down 17-5 to Spring Mills (in the state championship game) and you know if they go on any kind of run you might be in a hole too deep to climb out of. He comes out and hits a 3, never flinched, never thought twice. Then it 17-8 and there is a lot of work to do but we were back in it.

It took a lot of confidence to take that shot in that situation, but he was cool and knocked it down. It lifted us up and from there we just took off.”

It was his 27th 3 of the season.

Lewis said he always loved basketball.

“My parents signed me up for baseball and soccer when I was about five,” Lewis said. “But basketball was always what I wanted to do. I don’t have any memory of it, but they said I always wanted to go play basketball. And it’s still that way.”

Sancomb and Lewis will be honored at the annual Victory Awards Dinner May 3 at the Charleston Town Center.