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Cougars arrive in Charleston to face George Washington again

By Bob Madison - For the Chronicle | Mar 17, 2023

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Charleston-based George Washington (23-2) was accorded the No.2-seed in the eight-team Class AAAA state tournament field. And the Cougars were placed in the same bracket against the team that defeated them, 79-54, in the first week of February. The Cougars closed the season with wins in the Sectional and Regional tournaments to show a 16-7 overall record to the rest of the state.

The winner of this past Tuesday’s quarterfinal game moved alongside the winner of the third-seeded Parkersburg South vs. six-seeded Hedgesville game in the semifinals.

Jefferson has played George Washington, South Charleston and Hedgesville during the regular season.

The rest of the Class AAAA field had top-seeded Morgantown (23-2) facing eighth-seeded Bridgeport (18-7) and fourth-seeded Huntington (19-5) playing fifth-seeded South Charleston (18-7) in quarterfinal games.

Semifinal games were staged last night with the state championship game coming tomorrow.

In George Washington, the Cougars saw an experienced team coached by Rick Greene with his career record of 518-180.

Jefferson sent out double-figure scorers Jamari Jenkins, Jaiden Gladney and Will Shively to face the Patriots and their leading scorers Brandan Hoffman and Ben Nicol. Nicol will next play for Ohio University.

If the Cougars defeated favored George Washington in their rematch of sorts, they would have played the survivor of the Parkersburg South vs. Hedgesville game. It was Parkersburg South that defeated Jefferson in last season’s state tournament semifinals.

Any championship game appearance by the Cougars would come against the team left standing on Saturday from among Morgantown, Huntington, South Charleston and Bridgeport.

In the Par Mar Tournament in February that was staged at West Virginia State University in Institute, South Charleston also defeated Jefferson.

The Cougars won their Sectional with a one-game, home court victory over Musselman. And then came another one-game, home court win over Spring Mills in the Regional.

In the 14-7 record regular season, the Cougars suffered losses to Gainesville (Va.), Morgantown, St. Maria Goretti (Md.), South Charleston, George Washington and twice to Hedgesville.

Wyatt Shively, Kylan Johnson, Tay’Shaun Roper, Isaiah Fritts and Moses Talley have usually been combined with Jenkins, Will Shively and Gladney as the most-used eight players on Coach Richard Lewis’ roster.

Jefferson has wanted to make it an up-tempo game with his quickest players causing turnover problems for its opponents. Morgantown (a 30-point winner over the Cougars) and George Washington had little problems in easing away from the Cougars. Hedgesville kept their games with Jefferson to ones where halfcourt offenses were on display.

Without effective and disruptive pressure, Jefferson didn’t survive against either George Washington or Morgantown.