CUMBERLAND — The Keyser High roller-coaster hit another high point Friday night, knocking off top-ranked Bishop Walsh in aggressive fashion with a relentless inside attack in a 74-70 victory on Haystack Mountain.
Fifth-ranked Keyser, which never trailed, snapped Bishop Walsh’s 10-game winning streak and improved to 9-6. Bishop Walsh fell to 12-4.
Preston Hartman scored 12 first-quarter points and finished with 23 points and 18 rebounds to lead the way. Jeremy Green had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Maverick Nelson 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Matt Wilmer 12 points and eight rebounds. Wes Washington added five points and seven assists.
Coach Gary Liston called it his team’s most complete game of the season. It came during the most challenging of weeks, which has seen the Tornado play the top three teams in the area in a four-day span.
Keyser beat No. 2 Mountain Ridge 65-57 on Tuesday, but lost at No. 3 Allegany on Thursday, allowing a season-high 97 points in a 23-point loss.
“Defensive effort. That was the difference,’’ said Liston between the games played in a 24-hour span. “We had a good defensive effort earlier in the week against Mountain Ridge, and a good offensive night against Allegany. We just had to put the two together.
“It’s been a roller-coaster ride, no question about it,’’ he added. “I think we played the way we are capable of playing. This is the best game we’ve put together so far, but not the very best that we can play.”
Kamran Khataian scored 30 points and had seven assists and four steals for Bishop Walsh, which trailed by as many as 11 in the third quarter. Spencer Wine had 12 points and nine rebounds and Myles Clifford and Kym Pierce 11 points.
But the Spartans, who were within three, 64-61 with two minutes to go, couldn’t overcome Keyser’s 61-35 dominance on the boards.
“They outplayed us. Tonight, they were better than us,’’ said first-year BW coach Jeff Rhodes. “We were not good enough on defense or rebounding to win the game.
“We were only getting one shot a lot of the time. Rebounding is one of our weak points, and they exploited it. Keyser’s very athletic, and they played very well.”
Hartman’s 12 first-quarter points got Keyser off and running. Green had 15 of his 17 points in the middle two periods, and Nelson came off the bench to provide a major boost, on both ends of the floor.
Still, the Spartans trailed by just 37-32 at halftime. The largest leads came at 50-39 and 52-41, midway through the third quarter, which ended with Keyser up 60-53.
BW made a final push, getting to within 63-61 after a Clifford bucket with three minutes to play.
With Washington, Keyser’s point guard, fouling out with 4:02 to play, Wilmer nicely picked up the slack in ball-handling, and Hartman, Nelson and Green stayed strong inside to seal the win.
Keyser was just 12-for-21 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, but 9-for-12 when it mattered most, in the final 1:21. Nelson and Wilmer shot those final 12 free throws, Nelson going 5-for-6 and Wilmer 4-for-6.
“Maverick Nelson is our leading offensive rebounder and was a big, big help on the boards,’’ said Liston. “I don’t think they had an answer for Jeremy Green and Preston Hartman inside.
“We’re not a perimeter shooting team. Our bread-and-butter is inside, and we know that. We played three decent quarters. For the most part, we got it to Green and Hartman and made our shots.”
Keyser also won the jayvee game, 63-51, with R.C. Pratt scoring 27 points and Kurt Amtower pulling in nine rebounds.
Both teams play again tonight. Keyser is at Petersburg and BW hosts Southern Fulton. The BW-Southern Fulton jayvees play at 5 o’clock and the varsity at 6:30.
Mike Mathews is a Cumberland Times-News sportswriter. Contact Mike Mathews at mmathews@times-news.com.
Basketball
Related Photos
-
John A. Bone
Keyser upsets BW, 74-70
- Basketball
-
-
Philadelphia forces Game 7
Jrue Holiday scored 20 points, and Elton Brand had 13 points and 10 rebounds to lead the tough-and-determined Philadelphia 76ers past the Celtics, 82-75 on Wednesday night to send the Eastern Conference semifinals back to Boston for Game 7.
-
NBA suspends Haslem for one game, Pittman for three
Udonis Haslem insists he meant no harm. The NBA deemed otherwise, and the Miami Heat will be without one of their co-captains when they try to close out the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night.
-
Boston takes series lead behind Bass’ 27-point outburst
Brandon Bass scored 18 of his postseason career-high 27 points in the third quarter on Monday night as the Boston Celtics pulled away from the Philadelphia 76ers to win 101-85 and take a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
-
76ers rally, knot series
Andre Iguodala snapped a tie game with five straight points in the final 90 seconds to help the Philadelphia 76ers storm back from 15 points down and stun the Boston Celtics 92-83 on Friday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
-
Celtics top 76ers 107-91 in Game 3
Kevin Garnett scored 27 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and used a dominant second quarter to help the Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 107-91 on Wednesday night and take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
-
76ers even series with Celtics, 82-81
Evan Turner made the go-ahead layup with 40.4 seconds left and Philadelphia held off Boston the rest of the way with six straight free throws as the 76ers evened the second-round Eastern Conference series with an 82-81 victory Monday night.
-
James wins 3rd NBA MVP award
Heat forward LeBron James is the NBA’s MVP for a third time, putting him alongside some of the game’s all-time greats.
-
Knicks’ postseason slide hits 12
Dwyane Wade scored 25 points, Chris Bosh added 21 and Miami beat New York 104-94 on Monday night, sending the Knicks to an NBA-record-tying 12th straight postseason loss.
-
Ritchie voted player of year
D.J. Ritchie, who did just about everything the last three seasons for Southern Garrett and capped his high school career with likely his finest performance, was voted the Cumberland Times-News Boys Basketball Player of the Year by area head coaches.
-
Wizards streak into offseason
Playing without their Big Three, the Miami Heat suffered their worst defeat of the season with a 104-70 loss to the Washington Wizards in the regular-season finale Thursday night.
- More Basketball Headlines
-
