Williamstown’s Jayden Bryant (12) handles the ball during Thursday’s Class AA state semifinal game against Wyoming East at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The opportunity is here.

After coming up short in their previous two trips, the Williamstown boys basketball team plays for the Class AA state championship on Saturday morning. Tip-off is set for 10 a.m. at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center – the same venue where the top-ranked Yellowjackets defeated No. 4 Wyoming East 61-51 during Thursday’s semifinal game.

Winners of 17 in a row, Williamstown brings a 21-3 record into its second meeting of the season against Wheeling Central. The two teams met at Williamstown High School on Feb. 1 with the Yellowjackets pulling out a 56-55 victory.

“That matchup, we will be going up against an amazing player in (Eli Sancomb), who clinched player of the year earlier today,” said Williamstown’s Parker Schramm, who scored 17 of his game-high 20 points the second half as his team left Wyoming East in its rear-view mirror after erasing a 26-24 halftime deficit. “Wheeling Central has a lot of good players. We just have to stay locked in and be ready to play on Saturday.”

Teammate Jayden Bryant finished with 18 points and a team-high five rebounds. The other piece of the “Big Three’ – Cruz Isaly – picked up two quick personal fouls in the opening period but played all but 10 minutes of the game — picking up only one more the rest of the way.

Williamstown head coach Scott Sauro, right, strategizes with assistants Rodney Gibson, Rob Strcula and Ross Mullenix during Thursday’s Class AA state semifinal game against Wyoming East at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

This senior class, winners of 85 games in their high school career, was knocked out of the state tournament in the semifinal round as sophomores and defeated by Wheeling Central in the quarterfinals a year ago.

“This is what these guys wanted – and that was an opportunity,” Williamstown coach Scott Sauro said. “It is here. We have a couple of days to get ready for it and we are excited for that.

“It’s small school basketball. If you have shooters and a big, you can spread teams out, which makes it difficult on other coaches and other teams. And oh by the way, they have the Gatorade player of the year.

“We know what we are getting into. We are not afraid of anybody. That’s not a knock on any team because we have so much respect for them. But we will not be afraid to play in the game.”

Wyoming East, which entered the semifinal game winners of 10 straight, gave Williamstown all it could handle for two-plus quarters. During the latter portion of the second half, the Yellowjackets pulled away for an 11-point lead and the Warriors were forced to foul for basically the entire fourth quarter.

Williamstown’s Cruz Isaly (24) signals to teammates during Thursday’s Class AA state semifinal game against Wyoming East at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

“We ran into a really good basketball team today,” Wyoming East head coach Kent McBride said after his club ended the season at 19-4. “When you get down to this point of the season, you are not going to get a bad team. And we ran into a good one.”

Freshman point guard Talan Muscari led the Warriors with 15 points, while classmate Broc Johnson finished with 11 points and six rebounds. Konnor Fox, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, contributed 12 points and six boards.

“We gave it a heck of an effort and I thought there were points in the game where our youth really showed,” McBride said. “You had 18-year-olds from Williamstown who have been down here a long, long time versus guys who have just stepped on this floor.

“We battled like crazy to overcome it, but we just couldn’t. And it wasn’t due to lack of effort, it wasn’t due to lack of execution and it wasn’t due to lack of preparation. I have immense pride with not only these three players sitting with me, but for the other nine in our locker room.”

Williamstown knew it had its hands full when Fox put down a two-handed slam for the first points of the game. The first half consisted of five ties and six lead changes. The largest lead by either side before halftime was four points.

Williamstown’s Parker Schramm (2) makes a move with the ball during Thursday’s Class AA state semifinal game against Wyoming East at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

Isaly’s bucket at the 5:20 mark of the second quarter put Williamstown in front 18-17. If not for the likes of Wyatt Powell, Tyler Keiser and Lynken Joy and their supporting roles, the Yellowjackets could have possibly faced a larger deficit by intermission.

Powell scored a bucket and assisted on another, while Joy sank a couple of buckets to keep the deficit at two. Off the bench, Powell finished with six points, four assists and one steal.

“In these type of games your best players have to show up, and all three did,” Sauro said. “That’s a constant, but also in these games it’s the other guys that win games. We don’t win this game without Wyatt. The effort he gave defensively was tremendous. He’s just so steady on the ball – he doesn’t get beat very often.”

When Isaly was on the bench nursing two early fouls, Powell and the rest of the Yellowjacket contingent stepped up.

“With Wyatt, defensively he is on lock down,” Isaly said.

In reality, the court is flat. But in the second half, the Yellowjackets started to get downhill with its offense. Especially Schramm, who in the final four minutes of the third quarter and opening moments of the fourth period found his shot.

With the game tied at 30-30, Schramm accounted for 10 points and an assist during a 17-6 run which put the Yellowjackets in front to stay. Two buckets were 3-pointers, an area of the court he struggled with for a game and a half at the state tournament.

“I just started to get the feel,” Schramm said. “I know whether I’m playing good or bad, the rest of the team is going to have my back. They are going to pick me up whenever I am down, and I figure I can pick them up as well. It was just a good team win.”

Schramm helped clinch the game down the stretch by making 7-of-8 free throws as Wyoming East never got closer than six points the rest of the way.

Even though no one on the Williamstown roster were members of the program when the Yellowjackets won a Class AA state title in 2021, coach Sauro can lend his experience from having coached one.

“The job’s not done,” Sauro said. “We want to give it our best shot on Saturday and see what happens. This is something we have been working for, the seniors have been working for since they were second and third graders.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com