CHARLESTON — The Logan Wildcats basketball team got 30 points from Noah Cottrill last night, but couldn’t overcome the considerable size advantage of Mountain State Academy, as they fell to the prep school, 79-55, in the Hoops Classic in Charleston.

Cottrill, who played last season at Mountain State Academy, was the only Logan player to reach double digits. He scored four of Logan’s seven 3-pointers.

Mountain State has only one player on its roster under 6-feet-1. They have two 7-footers and the rest are pretty close in height. Mountain State players dunked the ball over the Wildcats five times in the game.

Logan Coach Mark Hatcher said the size factor was the difference in the game.

“They took a lot of things away from us because they’re tall and they really pushed us out to the line,” Hatcher said. “We had a hard time blowing by them and creating and everybody was a little gunshy. And then we missed open shots and that hurts worse because we started thinking ‘Should I shoot the next one?’ We made a little run at the end of the first and start of the second and we felt pretty comfortable. Defensively, we felt like we did a good job for about six or seven minutes. Then, they took out the seven-footer and put a kid in who could shoot 3s.”

Hatcher said he was pleased with how the Wildcats played in the second half.

“I thought we battled them and Gary Miller grew up tremendously. He played well and hard and strong,” Hatcher said. “Cottrill played great. A lot was put on his shoulders. It’s hard for him to play a team where he came from. But, we battled through it. We had some stuff happen at halftime. Their team challenged us at halftime in the hallway of the Civic Center. They taunted us and our guys went right back after them. My guys told Cottrill, ‘They’re after you and we’ve got your back.’ And I think that’s a good thing.”

Mountain State Academy took an 18-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and outscored Logan 25-8 in the second to go up 43-16 at halftime.

Logan, though, outscored Mountain State 39-38 in the second half. But, it wasn’t enough to overcome the huge advantage Mountain State had built in the first half.

Paul Williamson added nine to the Logan totals, Miller and Deyonta Coleman each scored four, Justin Sammons and Jordan Canada each hit a 3-pointer and Timmy Rein scored two.

Ahmad Ibrahim led Mountain State Academy with 18 points, while Justin Martin scored 12, Jabs Newby poured in 11 and Remi Dibo finished with 10.

Logan (1-1) returns to action Dec. 26 hosting Lincoln County.