Magnolia's Kingston Christen guards Cameron's Cuyler McCouley.

Magnolia advanced in Region 1 Class A semifinal basketball action on Friday night, March 7, with a 79-44 win over Cameron high school in New Martinsville.

The Blue Eagles were flying high early and took a quick lead in quarter one on a lay- in by Darin Shimp to start the game, that basket was followed by a Hunter Oates bucket off a steal and a Dubale Greathouse backdoor cut off a feed from Shimp forcing Cameron to call timeout.

From there the first quarter didn’t get any better for the Dragons with the Blue Eagles taking a 16-2 lead after eight minutes of play. Magnolia forced 10 first quarter turnovers leading to eight of their points.

Quarter two was more of the same as the hot shooting Blue Eagles forced six more turnovers in the period and received five 3’s and 17 points in the frame from junior All-State candidate Kingston Christen, while limiting the Dragons to five points making it 42-7 at the break.

The second half had Magnolia outscore the visitors 21-15 with Christen scoring 12 more of his game high 34 in the quarter. Both teams emptied their bench with five minutes to play and Cameron won the last eight minutes 22-15 to end the game.

“We got off to a quick start and I think that rattled them a little, however we might have set a record for missed layups tonight, if we make our easy shots we would have lit the scoreboard up. We need to work on our speed and dribble layups, we need to get back to that and it will help us a lot. I thought our defense was tremendous, I thought we passed the ball very well. We forced a lot of turnovers which got us a lot of easy buckets, “said Magnolia Coach Dave Tallman.

“We have a big one coming up on Wednesday, that’s the one to get you to Charleston. So we’re going to prepare the best we can, we need to be ready. The guys have heard us a million times, “32 minutes for a lifetime of memories.”

Magnolia won the turnover battle committing just seven while their trap and press defense forced the Dragons into 24 miscues. The Blue Eagles also controlled the boards grabbing 36 boards to 23 for Cameron.

Backing Christen for Magnolia was Greathouse with 12 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double, while Hunter Oates added 11 including a trio of 3’s, and ended with six steals. Scott Bailey came off the bench to score seven points and dish out three assists. Shimp added six points, six assists and 13 rebounds. Brayden Byers ended with six points and six boards and Bo Tallman drilled a 3-pointer. Eli Midcap took care of the paint with four blocks and 12 rebounds.

Cameron was led by Colin Mager with 10 points and seven rebounds. Camden Frye and Mason Scott each added eight, while Cuyler McCouley had six and Trey Estel hit for two.

The Blue Eagles hit 27 field goals including 12 3’s and made 2-4 free throws. Cameron hit 14 shots from the floor including six 3’s and made 1-2 from the free throw line.

The Blue Eagles moved their record to 15-8 on the season and are riding a nine game win streak heading into tonight’s regional game against Valley on the Blue Eagles court, with the winner advancing to Charleston.