DeWese, Manns shoot Woodrow past Spartans

By Gary Fauber
Assistant Sports Editor

FAIRLEA — Chase DeWese’s shooting hand was as hot as his temperature.

DeWese, who went to school Friday morning with a 100-degree temperature, hit four three-pointers in the first quarter on his way to a 21-point night. When he cooled off, Marcus Manns took over with an eerily similar third quarter.

The result was an 87-55 win for Class AAA No. 7 Woodrow Wilson over rival Greenbrier East.

“He shot the ball real well,” Woodrow coach Ron Kidd said of DeWese. “Sometimes that’s what you have to do when you are sick. You have to suck it up and step up. That’s what he did.”

DeWese scored 19 in the first half as the Flying Eagles took a 47-23 lead into the break. The Eagles (7-3) were able to do their damage despite an off-night by Manns, the team’s leading scorer going into the game.

Manns did not score until hitting a pair of free throws at the 1:57 mark of the second quarter. He then hit a couple of shots in the final two minutes of the half.

That appeared to be the wakeup call he needed.

Manns buried five three-pointers in the third quarter and wound up tying DeWese for game-high honors with 21 points. Like DeWese in the first quarter, when he hit a three-pointer at the buzzer, Manns ended the third with a last-second three, canning one from the left baseline with two defenders in his face.

“The first half, I couldn’t hit anything,” Manns said. “So I started looking for Chase and Mario (Thompson) because they were hitting their shots.”

“With the struggles we are having on offense right now, we cannot dig ourselves a hole,” Greenbrier East coach Jerry Bradley said. “Chase came out and dug the hole for us, and Marcus put the dirt in that hole.”

The Spartans (1-8) had trouble with the Eagles’ pressure all night long, but handled it better when Bradley moved senior Curtis Harris to point guard. Still, East made too many mistakes on offense.

“I didn’t think Curtis would be able to handle our press like that,” Kidd said. “I thought he did a good job.”

Harris led the Spartans with 18 points.

Woodrow led 78-38 at the end of three, then pulled its starters with 6:06 left to play. The Spartans outscored the Eagles 17-5 from that point.

Thompson gave the Eagles three double-digit scorers with 14 points. Woodrow was 12-of-27 (44.4 percent) from three-point range.

“If they play like that, not only can we not beat them,” Bradley said, “I don’t think many teams in the state of West Virginia can beat them.”

The Spartans play at South Charleston Wednesday. Woodrow plays at St. Albans tonight.

— E-mail:

gfauber@register-herald.com



Woodrow Wilson (7-3)

Chase DeWese 7 2-3 21, Marcus Manns 7 2-4 21, Mario Thompson 6 0-0 14, Tyler Coleman 2 0-1 4, Mario Walton 4 1-1 9, Joseph Rodriguez 0 0-0 0, Jared Kaplan 2 2-2 6, Chris Yambrick 0 2-2 2, Travis Parkulo 2 4-5 8, Allen Hughes 1 0-0 2, Damien Tunstalle 0 0-0 0. Totals: 31 13-18 87.

Greenbrier East (1-8)

Edgar McClintic 2 0-0 6, Dominique Keys 2 2-2 6, Brian Calhoun 0 0-0 0, Lucas Lemine 2 0-2 5, Torrey Nalley 3 2-2 9, Logan Holler 1 1-3 3, Andrew Schiefer 4 0-2 8, Curtis Harris 8 2-3 18. Totals: 22 7-14 55.

WW 25 22 31 9 — 87

GE 17 6 15 17 — 55

Three-point goals: WW: 12 (DeWese 5, Manns 5, Thompson 2); GE: 4 (McClintic 2, Lemine, Nalley); Fouled out: none.