Williamstown's Cruz Isaly goes up and grabs a defensive rebound following a missed foul shot during the Yellowjackets' 68-46 Class AA, Region I co-final victory against visiting St. Marys on Wednesday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

WILLIAMSTOWN — Ashton Boron went for a game-high 21 points here Wednesday evening for St. Marys in a Class AA, Region I, co-final, but it wasn’t enough as Williamstown used a strong second half to secure a 68-46 victory and punch its ticket to next week’s state tournament in Charleston.

Jayden Bryant had 11 of his team-high 18 counters in the first quarter for WHS head coach Scott Sauro, whose 21-3 Yellowjackets will clash at 9 p.m. next Thursday in the state quarterfinals as the No. 5 seed versus fourth-seeded Wheeling Central, which needed double overtime at home to outlast WHS, 71-65, back on Feb. 22.

“I thought we could’ve played a little better, but a win’s a win,” admitted ‘Jacket point guard Cruz Isaly, who had 14 points, six boards and a game-high four assists while joining Parker Schramm with a game-high two steals. “I’m excited to go to Charleston. It will be fun playing Central.

“Hopefully, it’s a little rowdy. It will be a good game, for sure. I love this team and hopefully we go far. We want to win. We have so many players who can come in and if one player is cold the other person is hot. We always have someone that can step up when we need it.”

Schramm, the leading scorer for WHS, finished with 11 points. He had one bucket at intermission after picking up foul number two 33 ticks into the second.

Williamstown's Payton Bunch, who was fouled by St. Marys' Brody Rice, made the basket and converted the three-point play during the host Yellowjackets' 68-46 Class AA, Region I co-final victory on Wednesday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“I thought St. Marys played well early,” admitted coach Sauro, whose team held a 36-19 edge on the glass with Bryant grabbing a game-high nine caroms. “Hit a couple 3s and handled our pressure very well in the first half.

“To our kids’ credit, I thought we turned up the pressure in the second half and made them a little uncomfortable. We are happy to be playing for a chance to win a state championship. We have more work to do, but looking forward to it.”

Brody Rice pitched in 11 markers for the Blue Devils of first-year head man Larry Johnson, who finished 10-15.

“We talked about that coming into the game. We couldn’t get outrebounded, which we did,” said Johnson, whose squad had their only lead at 3-2 after a Preston Lawhon trifecta. “I thought we had a good game plan coming into it. I thought the kids stuck with it. We lost seven games by five points or less this year, but the kids could’ve folded and they could’ve quit. They didn’t quit and testament to them. They kept plugging along.

“They kept working hard and I told them halfway through the season here’s the deal, I said ‘you keep working, keep sticking to the game plan, you are going to get better and we’re going to get better and people won’t want to play us at the end of the year’ and they got better and kept getting better. Our schedule got us ready for this. We’ve played a really good schedule. The kids stuck with it. Great group of kids and they played their rear ends off. It wasn’t a lack of effort.”

An assist from Lawhon to Boron resulted in a three-point play as the Blue Devils only trailed 10-9 midway through the first, but the visitors were in a 19-13 hole after one despite getting the last deuce of the quarter from Shane Moran via a Logan Eddy dime.

A 3 by Rice early in the second made it 21-18, but Williamstown scored nine straight points as Isaly had three field goals and Payton Bunch converted a tough spinning shot that resulted in a three-point play for a 12-point bulge.

Isaly’s top of the key triple pushed the advantage to 33-20 with 3:47 left in the half, but coach Johnson’s team cut it 36-27 at intermission thanks in part to a 3 apiece from Boron and Rice.

The Blue Devils, who made 5 of 11 from deep in the first half while missing 5 of 6 after the break, shot 34.5% (17 of 43) compared to Williamstown’s 50.4% (29 of 57).

However, the only make from beyond the arc was the first one shot by Rice in the third as SMHS eventually cut it to 39-34 after another Moran hoop at the 4:46 mark.

A Gavin Lemley foul shot started a quarter-ending 15-6 run, which was capped by three free throws from Byrant after being fouled with 1.3 on the clock. Schramm had seven markers in the spurt, while Lynken Joy had a lay-in and Bryant a putback to give the hosts a 54-40 cushion.

Although a Moran field goal cut it back to a dozen, Louis Goodnow got a putback as the hosts pulled away.

The ‘Jackets, whose only other setbacks came against No. 2 seed Charleston Catholic (41-32) and by a 47-44 score to Wyoming East which lost its regional co-final to third-seeded Chapmanville, finally went ahead by 20 at 64-44 with 3:16 to play when Schramm exploded for a one-handed hammer slam in front of his own bench.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com