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Morris, ’Jackets ready for state

PARKERSBURG — Williamstown point guard Ashley Morris had just about done everything a basketball player can do during her time in a Yellowjackets’ uniform.

The 5-foot-1 senior scored her 1,000th point earlier in the year, gained possession of both the steals and assists records at the high school, captured the 2016 Little Kanawha Conference championship, and had been named to the West Virginia Sports Writers’ All-State First Team three years in a row.

However, something was missing.

Morris, along with the rest of the Williamstown seniors, had never been crowned regional champions or made the trip to the state tournament in the Charleston Civic Center.

Fred Sauro’s six final-year players filled the blank page with a big check mark after the maroon-and-gold downed Tolsia, 79-54, Thursday with 66 points coming from said seniors.

The win snapped a four-year state tournament drought for the Yellowjackets and earned the team a six seed along with a matchup against three seed Tucker County at 9:30 a.m. today.

Ironically, the Hambleton-based squad knocked Williamstown out of the tournament the last time the Yellowjackets made it to the big dance.

“Let me jump right in,” said Sauro when asked about the Mountain Lions. “They are one really good basketball team. They are tough inside with two kids that are really strong. Elizabeth Nichols (44) and Terra Kuhn (42) are bangers and they play really well in the post. They attack and shoot free throws well.”

Jim Ambrose’s squad (22-3) is led into battle by 2016 all-state first teamer Sydney Nestor. Tucker’s best perimeter player shoots the ball and excels at breaking her opponents down off the dribble.

Tucker’s 5-foot-8 guard scores at a 17.3 points per game clip and leads the team in assists. The 5-foot-10 Kuhn is the only other Mountain Lion in double figures with 10.5 points per game while 5-foot-11 Nichols comes in one point short of 10 with 9.0.

Sauro’s team (19-5) will not be lacking length either.

The Wood County school features six girls 5-foot-9 or above.

Brooke Stewart (5-10), Victoria Clark (5-11), Sam Dedrick (5-9), and Bethany Arnold (6-1) give the ‘Jackets needed height in the block to battle against Tucker County’s bigs.

“We have to keep them off the boards if we want to win the game,” said Sauro.

Jenna Pridemore (5-11) and Izzy Erb (5-9) play more on the perimeter and do a good job at handling quicker smaller guards.

Arnold grabs 8.7 boards per outing, Stewart snares 6.8, Dedrick collects 5.2, and Clark battles for 4.9.

Dedrick also is a scoring threat with the ball in her hand down low or out on the perimeter. Next to Morris’ 17.7 points per game, the blond haired combo guard/forward pours the second highest amount of points at 12.3 per contest.

The Yellowjackets are deep on the bench with ten players able to step in for Sauro at a moments notice. Williamstown’s coaching staff hopes to use this to their advantage against the Mountain Lions.

Offensively, Tucker County is a lower scoring team (58 points to Williamstown’s 73), but is very stingy on defense.

They allow opponents just 35 tallies per 32 minutes. The Yellowjackets allow opponents 56.4 points per game.

“We have a heck of a first round matchup that is for sure,” said Sauro. “That being said … We are anxious to play and ready to go. We have found some interesting things we should be able to do and it is going to be a very interesting first round game. We are the underdog going in which is fun.

“I think the way that we play and I looked at it this morning. When we play a halfcourt game we average about 60 points per game but when we are uptempo and run we average about 86 a game. We like to do that but whether we can or not is another story.

“We have to make this an open court game. I think we have to use our transition and really attack the basket and do what we have done all year.”

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