AM
Westside makes 3 for 3 vs. Warriors
Wyoming East (38) Vs. Westside (64)
Feb 06, 2015
By J. DANIEL ROLLINS
for The Daily Telegraph
NEW RICHMOND — Nick Cook had one word to describe Westside’s win against county-rival Wyoming East Friday night in New Richmond.
“Team.”
The Renegades played team-driven basketball, especially on defense, to deliver a knockout punch to the Warriors 64-40.
While Westside played the opening eight minutes like a Corvette roaming through the curvy mountain roads of eastern Wyoming County, it seemed the Warriors stalled the engine from the get-go.
Utilizing a highly intense full-court press and half-court trap, Westside held Wyoming East to only four points in the first quarter, and then scoring in transition off of turnovers and rebounds to build up a lead the Warriors just couldn’t come back from.
“At the start of the game we were able to come out and get on them early and push the lead out,” Westside coach Nick Cook said. “We did a good job of maintaining it the rest of the game.”
The Renegades opened up the game on a 6-0 run before Wyoming East’s Logan Blankenship broke the streak, but just as they’ve done so many times before, the “Big Three” of Will Fox, Justin Cogar and Justin Kenneda took over, each hitting big baskets through the stretch in the first quarter to take an 18-4 lead into the second frame.
Wyoming East big man David Carte, who picked up his second foul of the game with 3:31 left in the first quarter, picked up another in the opening 20 seconds of the second before heading to the bench.
Without an inside presence in the game, Westside was able to continue to force turnovers and pull down rebounds, before getting out into space and making shots.
“I thought it was one of our better defensive games we had,” Cook said. “Our full-court stuff and our half-court man-to-man, I thought really took them out of a lot of things they wanted to do offensively. We picked our spots to transition tonight. I thought we were really focused on our defense tonight more than we normally do. I have no problem with that whatsoever.”
Cook also got a look at his bench early. With Kenneda and Cogar out in foul trouble midway through the second, younger players like Tre Colluci and Josh Morgan saw valuable minutes, while seasoned players like Larry Cook and Fox put on a clinic.
Fox scored 22 points and had five assists on the night.
“I thought he had about 60 tonight,” Cook said with a laugh. “He answered everything they did tonight. It seems like any time they would go on a little run, he would score or get a steal or an assist. Will caught fire down there and we ran a lot of ISOs for him and he really filled it up at that point.”
The quiet and mild-mannered Fox was in no mood to gloat following the win, noting he was only doing what he had to do to help his team pick up an impressive fourth straight win over Wyoming East and the second in 10 days.
“I just know I had to step up,” he said. “I just kind of caught fire once I hit a few shots. I just had to shoot it. It’s a good win to do that over here.”
As great as the night went for Westside, it seemed to go in the opposite direction for Wyoming East, which after three straight losses, is struggling to regroup and find an identity.
“We did just about everything wrong and they did just about everything right,” Warriors coach Rory Chapman said. “That’s two games in a row that we’ve scored in the 40s. You don’t win high school basketball games in this part of the state when you score in the 40s.”
After scoring only 12 points in the opening half, the Warriors shot much better in the third quarter, matching their first-half total early before finishing with 17 points.
Wyoming East actually outscored Westside in the third 17-14.
“By that time, the game was over,” Chapman said of his team’s late run. “They played good. Fox and Cogar got going. When those two guys get going, Westside is really, really good.”
Cogar finished the game with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
As impressive as his performance was, Cook was even more impressed with the junior Larry Cook, who the coach feels is largely unnoticed.
“He does so much for us,” Coach Cook said. “Nobody sees it or nobody knows about it. Even though he works his tail off in there. He’s always undersized in the post. He’s always doing the right things. He’s really becoming a key piece to our puzzle.”
Wyoming East sits at 7-9 with upcoming games against Class AA powers Robert C. Byrd and Bluefield, as well as a rematch wth the team that beat them a week ago, Liberty.
Chapman knows there is a lot of work to be done if they’re to avoid an improbable losing season and missing out on a trip to Charleston.
“We’ve got to find someone to score the basketball,” he said. “We need to get in our sets. I felt like sometimes we should’ve been dribbling when we should have been passing it and passing it when we should have been shooting it.”
His rival coach doesn’t think the Warriors have much to worry about, and doesn’t think the record should fool anyone.
“Wyoming East is a good team,” Cook said. “I don’t give a doggone what their record is.”
Wyoming East will travel to Mount View Tuesday while Westside will take on Ripley Wednesday at the Charleston Civic Center.

WESTSIDE (14-1)
Larry Cook 3 0-1 6, Will Fox 9 2-2 22, Tre Colluci 1 0-1 2, Josh Morgan 1 2-2 4, Bryce Robinson 2 0-2 4, Justin Kenneda 8 1-2 17, Isaiah Lester 1 0-0 2, Shane Jenkins 1 0-0 2, Justin Cogar 9 0-0 18. Totals: 28 5-11 64.
WYOMING EAST (7-9)
Alec Lusk 0 0-2 0, David Carte 4 3-4 11, Jacob Dulcie 1 0-0 2, John Morgan 2 1-4 6, Jon Sims 2 0-0 5, Logan Blankenship 2 3-4 7, Michael Hayworth 0 0-1 0, R. J. Folden 1 3-4 5, Logan Mullins 1 0-0 2. Totals: 13 10-19 38.
Westside............18 15 14 17 — 64
Wyoming East.....4 8 17 9 — 38
3-point goals: W: 3 (Fox 2, Kenneda); WE: 2 (Sims, Morgan). Fouled out: None.




Nightly Roundup
Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Wyoming East 4 8 17 9 0 38
Westside 18 15 14 17 0 64
Home | Game Schedules | Archive Coverage
Player of the Week | Bounce Blog | Memorable Matchups
www.BDTBounce.com
Copyright © BDTBounce.com
All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.
Site Designed By: MotionLX, LLC