It’s been an up and down season so far for the Chapmanville Regional High School boys’ basketball team.
But lately, the Tigers seem to be putting it all together.
It’s the right time, too, as it is now the post-season.
Chapmanville (14-9), winners of five straight games including last Saturday night’s 56-25 win over Wayne in the first round of the Class AA sectionals, will try to move on again with a victory Thursday night at Logan over Tolsia (14-8), the No. 1 seed and the regular season Cardinal Conference champions.
Game time is set for 6 p.m. at Logan High School’s Willie Akers Arena.
The other sectional semifinal on Thursday at 8 p.m. pits No. 2 seed Scott (13-9) against No. 3 seed Mingo Central (13-9). The Miners had the best record in games against sectional foes this season at 6-2 compared to Scott (5-3) and Tolsia (5-3) but were voted third by the coaches.
Chapmanville and Tolsia split during the regular season.
In the previous meeting on Feb. 17 at Glenhayes, the Tigers won 45-43. Tolsia took the first meeting, 52-41, on Feb. 8 at Chapmanville’s Danny Godby Gymnasium.
Chapmanville rallied from a five-point deficit to beat Tolsia in the last meeting and closed out the league portion of the season with a 7-7 mark.
Mackenzie Martin led Chapmanville with 23 points. Martin, a three-year member of the Tiger program who became the school’s all-time leading scorer this season with more than 1,500 points, played his freshman year at Tolsia.
In the first meeting, Kenny Plumley and Mackenzie Martin led the Tigers with 16 and 15 points respectively. Mikie Hurst tallied nine points.
Terry Davis drilled five 3-pointers and led all scorers with 19 points. Brandon Clark had 14, while Morgan Stacy also broke into double digits in scoring with 11 points. Austin Brewer had six.
Chapmanville first-year coach Allan Hatcher said Tolsia will be tough to beat.
“They have a lot of talent,” he said. “They have four starters back from last year and they went to the Final Four. They were the number one team on the ballot in our whole region this year. We’ve got to play the number one team but it should be a good one. They’ve got a lot of weapons. They’ve got 6-7 and 6-4 kids. They’ve got it all. We’re going up against a good team and hopefully we will be ready.”
A victory over the Rebels will put Chapmanville in Saturday night’s sectional finals against either Scott or Mingo Central and will also advance the Tigers to next week’s regionals, leaving CRHS just one win at away from reaching its all-elusive state tourney berth.
Chapmanville’s boys have come close but have never made it to the state tournament.
The Tigers have lost several times over the years in regional championship games — the most recent in 2010 — when CRHS lost to Sissonville in the finals.
* In Class AAA, Logan High School limps into its sectional tournament with a 7-15 record.
The Wildcats drew the No. 3 seed and are scheduled to play No. 2 seed Spring Valley (6-16) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Cabell Midland High School in Barboursville.
Logan is just 1-7 in its last eight games and are suffering its worst season in 10 years when the Cats were 9-14 in the 2002-03 campaign and lost to Scott 48-43 in the Class AA sectional tourney at Williamson.
Logan has since enjoyed nine straight winning seasons including a Class AA state crown in 2005 and a 3A state title in 2010.
That string, however, has come to an end this season.
Host Cabell Midland is scheduled to play top seed Huntington (15-6) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the other sectional semifinal. Cabell Midland breezed to a 74-47 first-round sectional win on Monday night over Lincoln County.
Spring Valley’s only wins this season were against: Lincoln County (63-45); Cabell Midland (64-47); St. Albans (55-46); Nitro (56-49); Chesapeake, Ohio (62-50) and Cabell Midland (51-48) again.
Since starting off the season with a 2-0 record, the Timberwolves have since gone 4-16.
Spring Valley, which finished 13th in the 16-team MSAC, played well in the regular season finale, falling 77-74 to Hurricane — a team Logan lost to in the season opener at home.
The T-Wolves also played Capital tough late in the season with a 64-61 loss on the road.
Jacob Kilgore led the Spring Valley in the Capital game with 22 points, while Greg Herbert added 13 and Josh Steele 12. Kilgore is a 6-4 sophomore forward, while Herbert is a 6-0 sophomore forward. Steele is a 6-1 junior forward.
Spring Valley also has size down low with 6-8 junior center Tucker Meade and 6-4 junior forward/center Tanner Drown.
Logan is averaging just 50.6 points a game this season and no Wildcat player averages more than that 10 points per contest.
Senior A.J. Reynolds leads Logan as he averages 9.2 points a game. Worm Street (8.9), Zak Miller (7.1), Chase Preston (6.3), Z. Minnick (6.0) and C.J. Williams (5.9) are right behind.
Miller leads Logan with 41 made 3-pointers on the season. Preston has 27 and Minnick 20.
T.J. Tomblin, a 6-9 senior, leads the team in rebounding at 7.1 boards per contest. Street and Reynolds are both at 5.6 boards a game.
The winners of the two semifinal games will advance to Friday night’s finals. Both teams will then get automatic bids to the upcoming regional tourney.
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