Wyoming East moves on with 67-37 dismantling of Ravenswood (With Gallery)

Mar. 8—CHARLESTON — The relentlessness that is Wyoming East girls basketball has once again led the Warriors into the Class AA state basketball semifinals.

Less than two minutes into their game with No. 7 seed Ravenswood Wednesday at the WVSSAC 2023 Girls State Basketball Tournament, the No. 2 Warriors had ridden the early scoring of Abby Russell (nine points on a trio of 3-point goals right out of the chute) into a 9-0 lead. By quarter's end, the always-charged Wyoming East battery had lifted the team into a 23-10 lead en route to an eventual 67-37 conquest of the Red Devils.

With the convincing victory, Wyoming East (19-4) advances to meet No. 6 Petersburg in the semifinal round at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, March 10. Petersburg took down No. 3 St. Marys 48-40 in an earlier quarterfinal game on Wednesday.

"I thought we came out early to get started, and Abby hit some key shots for us and that got us going, and our defense did really well in the first quarter," said Wyoming East head coach Angie Boninsegna. "We were able to dictate (the tempo with the transition game)."

She stressed that Russell's early marksmanship got the team motivated and fed the players "some good, positive energy."

In the first quarter alone, Wyoming East scored 12 points in the paint and 10 points off the fast break as it continually attacked the Red Devils. For the game, the Warriors — utilizing mostly a smothering pressure defense and pushing the pace on offense as often as possible — tallied 46 points in the paint and 30 points in transition.

"That's our goal; we've been blessed the last 6-8 years having real good athletes," Boninsegna said. "We've been blessed to play the same style overall that we have been playing.

"Overall, I was really pleased with our effort today. We really got out and ran the transition well. We play the speed of the game that we like all through the game."

Maddie Clark paced the Wyoming East effort with 15 points, 12 assists, eight steals and five rebounds. "Maddie is a great athlete," said Boninsegna. "Some moves she makes in there in penetration and I'm 'Woah.'"

Cadence Blackburn tossed in 14 points for East. Colleen Lookabill cleared six rebounds.

When the Warriors ran into some foul trouble (three starters had to go to the bench due to fouls), their coach turned to four substitutes and switched to a 3-2 zone defense. "We did a great job with the 3-2."

She also said the deeper Warrior bench was a factor. "The depth helped us. They got a little bit tired. We can go 8-9 deep."

Ravenswood (13-11) got a game-high 23 points from Hadleigh McGoskey. Teammate Maci Mosser grabbed eight rebounds.

"I'm proud of the girls, the effort they played with tonight," said Ravenswood head coach Cara Williams. "We knew it was going to be a tough battle with Wyoming East, the runner-up from a year ago. We knew it was going to be tough."

Ravenswood trailed 30-12 on a conventional three-point play from the Warriors' Clark at the 5:55 mark of the second quarter following a Red Devil turnover, but Ravenswood answered with a 9-3 surge to close the half down just 33-21. McGoskey tallied seven of the points.

"We thought we played a really good first half, and coming out (in the third), we knew we had to get a couple of stops, and we just weren't able to do that ... and stop their run-outs," Williams said. "I'm proud of the way our girls battled."

Coming out of intermission, East got eight points from Blackburn and two more from Clark to get back into a more comfortable 43-23 cushion. The Warriors logged three steals in the first 90 seconds of the quarter, and they maintained the intensity from there.

Williams said it's hard to prepare for a team as physical and deep as the Warriors. "We don't have the depth that they have, No. 1. (And) Live-ball turnovers, we knew that was going to be an issue because they love to get out and run."

Email: skeenan@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gb_scribe

Ravenswood

Emily Wratchford 2-6 2-2 6, Maci Mosser 1-6 0-2 2, Hadleigh McGoskey 8-27 5-6 23, Kadi Price 1-2 0-0 2, Brooklyn Adams 2-4 0-2 4. Totals: 14-60 7-15 37

Wyoming East

Abby Russell 3-9 0-1 9, Cadence Blackburn 7-12 0-1 14, Colleen Lookabill 3-4 0-0 6, Maddie Clark 7-10 1-1 15, Kayley Bane 3-4 2-4 8, Abi Baker 2-5 1-3 5, Laken Toler 2-3 0-1 6, Charleigh Price 0-1 0-0 0, Michaela Brooks 0-0 0-0 0, Carlee Lane 0-0 0-0 0, Kyleigh Martin 1-1 0-0 2, Kenna Price 0-0 0-0 0, Emma Blankenship 0-0 0-0 0, Alivia Monroe 1-1 0-2 2, Gabby Cameron 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 29-52 4-13 67

R: 10 11 6 10 — 37

WE: 23 10 18 16 — 67

Three-point goals — R: 2 (McGoskey); WE: 5 (Russell 3, Toler 2). Fouled out: None.

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