Sienna McKeever

Looking for a trip to Charleston the Magnolia Blue Eagles traveled to Clarksburg on Wednesday night, March 5, to battle the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame high school in a girls Class A Region 1 co-final at Angelo Basile Court. The Lady Blue Eagles put up a tough fight for two quarters before Notre Dame got hot and went on a run to capture the contest 54-40 and advance to next week’s state tournament.

Magnolia fell behind 9-2 to start the contest, but quickly recovered and rattled off seven straight points to tie the game before ending the quarter in the lead 13-11. The Blue Eagles hit seven free throws in the first quarter to help get the lead. Using an effective box and one defense to limit the scoring of the Fighting Irish’s star player Selena Wilson the Blue took a 20-11 with 2:38 off the clock in the second quarter, but Notre Dame nailed a short jumper and a 3-pointer to pull within two and then went on a scoring spurt top take the lead 23-20 at the end of the second quarter.

“They carried that momentum over. When stuff started to fall apart, she got a couple late looks in that first half and that really carried some weight mentally,” Magnolia head coach Kasey Sapp said.

Mallory McDiffitt hit a 3-pointer to start the second half and tie the game at 23, but Notre Dame came right back on an Isabella Garnek jumper and a triple from Fryer 1:30 into the third quarter to take the lead for good. Garnek went on to score eight points in the frame and Wilson accounted for six, including a follow-up basket just before the buzzer sounded to stake her team to a 40-28 advantage with 8 minutes remaining.

The home team outscored Magnolia 11-2 in the fourth quarter to go up 51-30 with 3:27 left to play. Magnolia never gave up however and outscored the Fighting Irish 10-3 the rest of the way but it was too little too late, and the Irish moved to 12-6 on the season and earned their berth as a number 8 seed against number 1 Gilmer County in a state quarterfinal game at the Charleston Civic Center.

Wilson was the game leading scorer with 25 points and finished with a double-double with 20 rebounds. Garnek scored all 11 of her points after halftime and added nine boards. PiperFryer added nine points and five assists.

“They do a really good job of running offense for 35 seconds, making you guard them all 35 seconds and then you have to go try to run your offense, and you come back down and do it all again,” Sapp said. “Keeping us on the defensive end and making us work that whole time caught up to us.”

Kylie Yost led Magnolia with 11 points. McDiffitt, Aubrey Warder and Jade Carvoo would finish with 6 points each, freshman Karli Warder added 5 points, Sienna McKeever netted 4 points and freshman Sockman added two points for the losing Blue Eagles. The Eagles finished the season with a (11-13) record with many young players playing, the future looks bright for the Lady Eagles. The Blue Eagles defense forced the home team into 22 turnovers, however Magnolia had trouble getting points off the miscues as they were just 14-47 shooting from the floor.

Coach Kasey Sapp said, “I am so proud of the girls in battling a very good Notre Dame squad tight through the first half but we had many chances to stay with them in the second half but could not finish shots or make free throws. But our effort was good and we never quit. Selena Wilson is a really nice player that can do everything on the court and Bella Sockman did a good job on her in the first half creating a lot of havoc for the star player. We have a lot of returners coming back next year and will keep working hard. Best of luck to my two senior leader’s Sienna McKeever and Mallory McDiffitt, they will be missed. Congratulations and good luck to Notre Dame at the state tournament.”