Wheeling 64, Boylan 49: Boylan, with six of its best eight players underclassmen, wasn’t supposed to reach the Class 4A girls basketball supersectionals.
“We proved everybody wrong,” sophomore Brea Edwards said.
Except for the first seven minutes Monday. Boylan showed its youth early and the Titans never had a chance as Wheeling rolled to state with a 64-49 victory Monday.
The No. 8-ranked Titans (31-2) missed their first eight shots and had 10 turnovers as No. 6 Wheeling jumped to a 17-0 lead.
“They were bigger and we came out a little weak, but we gave it our all,” Edwards, who led Boylan with 15 points and eight rebounds, said.
Wheeling made its first five shots, all layups, to take a 10-0 lead barely three minutes into the game.
“The first quarter, we were tight and a little bit nervous,” coach Kim Connell said. “None of these girls have been here before. We came out tight — if you want, you could say shell-shocked — but we battled our way through it.”
Maria Ludeke finally got Boylan on the board with a short baseline jumper with seven seconds left in the opening quarter.
“We got beat by a better team,” Connell said. “When you get outscored 17-2 in the first quarter — we had a hard time digging out of that. But give my girls all the credit in the world; they hung in there. The outcome could have been much worse.”
Wheeling center Ashley Wilson, the leading vote-getter on the 4A all-state team, dominated inside with 20 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocked shots.
And if that wasn’t enough, point guard Janelle Cannon scored 24 points, including 3-of-4 3-pointers. All three that she made were from NBA distance, at least four feet beyond the line.
“She was smooth,” Connell said. “And we had to play her both inside and out. She is a good driver.”
“They were hot,” said Ludeke, who scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting. “There wasn’t much we could do. They were a good team with good shooters that played a good game. We gave it our best shot.”
Boylan recovered at one point to get to within 42-29 in the third period, but Cannon and Wilson then led another Wheeling run to end Boylan’s 26-game winning streak.
“I’m so proud of my team,” Ludeke, a senior, said. “I love every person on this team. Because this team was so close, that’s why we went so far.”
- Matt Trowbridge, rrstar.com
