By Jim Workman
Register-Herald Sports Writer
CHARLESTON —
Three of No. 2-ranked Oak Hill’s four losses came at the hands of No. 1 Wyoming East this season.
Undeterred, the Red Devils bumped off the top-ranked Warriors 55-45 to claim the Class AA state championship Saturday at the Civic Center.
“What makes this so special is Wyoming East is such a good team,” Ferri said. “They had beaten us three times. It’s a good win just to show that we’re not going to lay down. We’re going to play too.
“We definitely didn’t need a scouting report.”
“We wanted another shot at them,” Oak Hill sophomore Jack Flournoy admitted. “Losing 3 to 1 to them isn’t a very good percentage. Making it 3-2 makes it a little closer, but we won the biggest one.
“I’ll take that.”
DeAndre Leonard led Oak Hill with 14 points, while adding nine rebounds, eight assists and seven steals.
Kalif Wright netted 15, pulling down eight boards, while Flournoy added 11 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots.
All three made the All-Tournament team.
It took a while for both teams to get their offense going. Wyoming East led 22-13 at the intermission.
“At halftime I had to yell a little bit because I thought the problem was all in our heads,” said Ferri. “It was all about our attitude. We held them to 22 points in the first half, and we were still only down by nine.
“We were out there pouting, frustrated,” Ferri added. “We weren’t fighting through things. There were people getting pushed, and that’s going to happen. Jack gives a guy a two-hand shiver — if (West Virginia football coach) Bill Stewart is here, he may want to talk to Jack. It was all in our heads. Once we got our attitude straightened out, we started to play basketball.”
Oak Hill connected on just 6-of-22 field goals and committed eight turnovers in the first half.
Wyoming East made just 8-of-25 shots in the first two quarters.
“We definitely had to calm down,” Flournoy agreed. “In the first half, our emotions were off the wall. I was definitely frustrated. Everybody was frustrated. We finally just calmed down and ran our sets and played basketball instead of running around out there and playing street ball. That was the key.
“We buckled down and did what we had to do. It was a state championship game. It doesn’t happen for many people in their life.”
The Warriors began the third quarter on a 5-0 run but Oak Hill immediately answered with a 29-4 burst of its own to take a 32-31 lead heading into the final period.
Wright rattled the rim with a thunderous dunk with eight seconds to go in the third quarter, giving the Red Devils the one-point lead.
“After that dunk, I think our guys just decided, ‘Hey, we’re going out of here a winner,’” said Ferri. “They deserve all the praise.”
The momentum continued into the fourth quarter as the Red Devils built as much as an 11-point advantage.
“Wyoming East is a very good team, and a very good defensive team,” Ferri said. “We were having a hard time running our sets and getting shots. We were making one pass and (shooting) a three. We’re not that kind of team. We have to be patient and go inside-out. Once we got that straightened out, our kids really, really played in the second half. They decided that they weren’t going to beat us. They weren’t going to beat us.”
“I didn’t want to go back to Oak Hill a loser,” said Wright. “I wanted to make the whole city proud, my family proud, my coaches and my teammates proud. It’s the best feeling in the world — winning a state championship.”
“That was probably as good as we’ve played in a second half,” Ferri said. “If we’d had a better one, I don’t remember one. We were feeding off emotion. Things go better when you’re making shots.”
Wyoming East senior guard Evan Muscari led all scorers with 21 points. Alex Webb scored 10. Both were selected to the All-Tournament team, along with Chase Morgan who was held to just three points on 1-of-7 shooting and Marcus Schofield who netted nine points and grabbed nine rebounds.
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With the big three stars that Oak Hill’s lineup boasts, one might not expect Kyle Colon or Thomas Booth to be much of a factor.
Colon, a 5-foot-10, 155-pound junior guard, averages five points per game this season.
But it was Colon who netted 12 points, seven points coming in the fourth quarter.
And Booth? The 5-10, 160-pound junior guard nailed 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute of play.
“I thought Kyle sparked the whole team,” said Ferri. “He made a diving play; he got a steal and a layup. I thought he turned our game around just by his emotion. Kyle is not a great basketball player but Kyle is a winner. He’s a tough kid. He sparked the turnaround.
“He shot a three and I was thinking ‘Oh no,’” Ferri admitted. “He drills it. But one of my assistants said, ‘Coach, don’t worry. Kyle said he wasn’t going to miss.’ A kid with that kind of confidence, you just have to turn them loose. He was a key to turning it around.”
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You can count Ferri as a fan of playing Wyoming East in Charleston. The change of scenery was to his liking.
Two of Oak Hill’s losses to the Warriors were in the Big Atlantic Classic and the sectional final — both played at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
“I was just glad that this game wasn’t played at the Raleigh County Armory,” Ferri joked. “We didn’t play well in the Armory when we were a (Class) AAA team.
“At the Armory, we got beat twice by 20,” said Leonard. “We kept hearing about it over and over. We had to come out here and make a statement. That was a lot of the motivation. Coach told us not to let them get into our heads. In the first half, we let them get in our heads a little bit. At halftime, coach gave it to us. That got our heads together.”
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It is Ferri’s first state title as a coach. He was an assistant on the 1989 Class AAA title team.
“We’ve always had good basketball in Oak Hill,” he said. “We’re blessed with kids that like to play. And we’re blessed with talent. We lost a lot of population, which now makes us AA, but our 1989 team was a great team. We’ve had good kids and we felt very fortunate to have a strong basketball background.”
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Playing a team five times — Wyoming East turned out to be the opponent for 20 percent of Oak Hill’s schedule — was a little much, Ferri stated.
“I think next year, we ought to play Wyoming East every Friday,” Ferri joked. “It’s kind of ridiculous. We played 25 games and five were against them. It’s a great rivalry. They’re great guys. The coaches are friends. I like their young men. We get along with them. We have all the respect in the world for them.
“It’s a good rivalry, but you have to put that aside when you step on the floor. We’re always going to battle. Wyoming County basketball is fantastic and we think Fayette County basketball is pretty good too.”
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With a combined nine starters coming back next year for Oak Hill and Wyoming East, a rematch in the 2011 state championship would not require much of a stretch of the imagination.
But there’s a lot to consider, Ferri warned.
“I would like to hope that we could be back, but you never know what’s going to happen. You could have an injury or whatever. You just don’t know. I know Wyoming East has a great nucleus coming back too. We have everybody — our top six is coming back. I hope we work hard enough this summer to get back.
“But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s relax and enjoy this. I need a break. It’s time to watch some baseball and play some golf. We’ll enjoy this and worry about next year, next year.”
— E-mail: jworkman@register-herald.com
OAK HILL 55, WYOMING EAST 45
OAK HILL (21-4)
Leonard 6-15 1-2 14, Booth 0-2 3-4 3, Flournoy 4-11 3-3 11, Colon 5-6 0-0 12, Wright 6-12 3-5 15, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Garris 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-47 10-14 55.
WYOMING EAST (22-3)
Muscari 7-16 3-4 21, Webb 3-14 2-2 10, Morgan 1-7 0-0 3, Schofield 4-7 1-3 9, Bishop 1-5 0-0 2, Fralin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-49 6-9 45.
Oak Hill 9 4 19 23 — 55
Wyoming East 14 8 9 14 — 45
3-Point Goals—Oak Hill 3-11 (Colon 2-2, Leonard 1-5, Booth 0-2, Flournoy 0-2), Wyoming East 7-27 (Muscari 4-11, Webb 2-9, Morgan 1-6, Schofield 0-1). Fouled out—none. Rebounds—Oak Hill 32 (Flournoy, Leonard 9), Wyoming East 30 (Schofield 9). Assists—Oak Hill 13 (Leonard 8), Wyoming East 10 (Morgan 4). Total fouls—Oak Hill 16, Wyoming East 11. A—na.
