Logan’s Z. Minnick tries to dribble to the paint against the Highlanders.

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It was a mismatch.

The Logan High School boys’ basketball team did not match up well with Class AAA sectional foe Huntington on Thursday night as the Wildcats lost 76-50 to the Highlanders at Logan’s Willie Akers Arena.

Huntington, a top five Class AAA team, improved to 4-0 on the season with the win. Logan dropped to 1-2.

The athletic Highlanders gained a measure of revenge on the Wildcats which beat Huntington 64-45 in the Class AAA sectional final last March at Cabell Midland High School.

It was different this time around as Huntington jumped on top of Logan 17-5 after one quarter and never really looked back.

It was the first of a difficult three-game, three-day swing for Logan. The Wildcats were scheduled to play Magnolia on Friday night at the George Washington tourney in Charleston and then were slated to return to GW on Saturday night with a contest against St. Albans.

Logan had no answer for Huntington’s Arick Nicks, a 6-6 junior, who poured in 27 points in Thursday night’s game. Shaquan Miller also broke into double digits in scoring with 12 points.

The Wildcats, which were hampered all night long by 20-plus turnovers and the Highlanders’ ball-pressure defense, were led by Brynden “Worm” Street and Z. Minnick, who tallied 11 and 10 points respectively.

Zak Miller came off the bench to can a pair of 3-pointers, finishing with six points. A.J. Reynolds also had six points, while C.J. Williams, Chase Preston and Cameron Sammons all had three points. Scoring two points for the Wildcats were Josh Rein, Brant Williams and Benny Adkins.

Huntington raced out to a 10-0 lead on Logan as Nicks completed an old-fashioned three-point play with 4:48 to go in the first quarter.

The Cats pulled to within 11-5 with a post-up move down low by Street.

Huntington, though, put down a dunk and outscored the Cats 6-0 the rest of the quarter to take a 17-5 advantage.

In the second quarter, the Highlanders pushed their lead to 19-5 with a 19-footer by Miller.

Minnick kept Logan in the game by netting a 3-pointer with 4:31 left and scoring two more buckets to close the gap to 24-14 with 2:48 to go.

A lay-in by Rein kept the Huntington lead at 10 at 26-16.

Huntington, however, scored the last two hoops of the quarter to lead 30-16 at the break.

Logan made a game of it in the third quarter, going on a quick 7-0 scoring burst to trim the deficit to 30-23 barely a minute into the second half.

The Highlanders then responded.

A three-point play by Chancelor Wooding made it 43-28.

Then another three-point play — this one by Nicks — pushed the Huntington lead to 46-30.

It was 48-34 after three and the Highlanders went on to outscore Logan 28-16 in the fourth to turn the game into a rout.

Huntington also won Thursday night’s JV game with a 78-58 victory over Logan.

Magnolia 86,

Logan 60

CHARLESTON — Logan dropped to 1-3 on the season with Friday night’s 86-60 loss to Class A state power Magnolia at the George Washington High School tourney on the Patriots’ South Hills campus.

Magnolia improved to 3-0 on the season with the win.

The Wildcats’ lost their second straight and played their second game in two days. Logan, which lost at home to Huntington on Thursday night, was slated to return to George Washington on Saturday night for one last tourney game against St. Albans.

Logan was led by sophomore guard Z. Minnick, who had 17 points. Zak Miller had 10 and A.J. Reynolds 13, while Worm Street had eight and Chase Preston finished with seven. Trent Dalton had three, C.J. Williams two and Zak Hatfield one.

Magnolia was paced by 6-6 senior center Mark Winters, who had 34 points. Zach Willhoite had 15 and Preston Boswell 14.