OAK HILL — For Oak Hill, the 2010 season has unfolded just about the same as the 2009 season.

The Red Devils have played Wyoming East four times and they have a 1-3 record against the No. 1 team in the state — winning at home.

They have lost to just one other team. This year, it was PikeView.

And, more importantly, the Red Devils are making their fourth straight appearance in the Class AA state tournament, starting today in Charleston as they face Keyser at 1 p.m.

Coach Fred Ferri is hoping to take it just a little further this time.

“A lot of people are talking about Wyoming East, but you have to take care of it one game at a time,” said Ferri, who has led Oak Hill (18-4) to the state tournament in six of his nine seasons at the helm.

“I don’t care who we play. Right now it’s Keyser. As long as we keep playing, that’s the concern. We want to play on Saturday.”

Oak Hill has won 37 games in two seasons, and that isn’t a surprise as the Red Devils returned first-team all-stater Jack Flournoy, second-teamer Kalif Wright and honorable mention DeAndre Leonard.

And the big three have not disappointed this time around.

Wright, a 6-foot-6 junior, has had a solid season for Oak Hill, averaging a double-double. After a 20-point performance in a Region 3 co-final win over PikeView, Wright is averaging right at 20 points and 11 rebounds per game.

Wright has shown a propensity to score at will inside.

Wyoming East coach Rory Chapman said Wright is almost “impossible” to stop once he gets the ball on the block.

“He’s a big key for us,” Ferri said. “Inside, he has to score. And he has the ability to score inside for us. He has a nice shot, a nice jump/hook and when he is on, he is hard to stop. He’s been pretty consistent for us when we get him the ball inside.”

Flournoy has put together a solid sophomore season, averaging 18.7 points and nearly nine boards a game as well as 3.5 assists per game.

“Jack’s our best defender,” Ferri said. “And he is probably our best passer. DeAndre is an excellent passer, too, but Jack sees the floor so well. I don’t know if it’s the height (he’s 6-6 also), but whatever it is, Jack sees the floor, and he can anticipate so well. Maybe it’s growing up around the game (his father, the late John Flournoy, was a long-time area coach), but he knows the game.

“Some kids just understand the game better than others. I don’t know if it’s the fact that they are around the game and they spend time talking about the game, not just playing. But Jack knows basketball.”

Leonard also has all-state numbers, averaging 11.3 points, 7.8 assists and 7.3 rebounds.

“I’ve said this before; DeAndre has better numbers than some of the guards who made the all-state team last year,” Ferri said.

“I told him before the season started that he was going to be a big key for us. Somebody said that the best thing about sophomores is they become juniors. That’s DeAndre. He has grown up, matured and become a leader for us. You go through growing pains and he has, as a freshman and a sophomore. But he’s improved so much.”

Everybody knows, Ferri said, that the Big Three have to score.

Which brings up the supporting cast.

Thomas Booth and Kyle Colon are the two starters in the backcourt.

“We talk about that as a coaching staff all the time,” Ferri said, noting his assistants, Jerry Epperly, former Red Devils Benitez Jackson and Monty Wright  and Jason Blakenship. “We know we have to get contributions from our other guys — Thomas, Kyle, Steven Garris, Dustin Nuckels and Noah Smith. And the thing about it is, it doesn’t have to be scoring.”

Colon provided a little of that against PikeView in the Region 3 co-final, when he had nine points.

It’s that PikeView game that Ferri called the highlight of the season.

After all, the Devils had lost 66-63 at PikeView three weeks before, that game coming less than 18 hours after the Devils beat No. 1 Wyoming East in Oak Hill.

“Well, I felt that was a game we should have won at PikeView, but we didn’t, so you move on,” Ferri said. “They are a team with a lot of seniors, a lot of very good seniors. And we’re all underclassmen. So to go down there and win, and win like we did, with a berth in the state tournament on the line, I thought that was the biggest win of the year.”

And the low-lights were the two 20-point losses to Wyoming East at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.

“It’s a big challenge, two good teams and we just didn’t step up,” Ferri said. “They are a great team. To beat the elite teams you have to step up, you have to play. In those games we didn’t.”

Leonard, for one, said Oak Hill wants another shot at Wyoming East in the state tournament.

“When you are dealing with 16- to 18-year-olds, sometimes, they say things,” Ferri said. “But DeAndre was speaking from the heart and I appreciate that. Sometimes you have to show a fire, have confidence.”