CHAPMANVILLE — Mark Hatcher and Harry Kirk both seemed eager to get Tuesday night’s county showdown between the Logan Wildcats and the Chapmanville Tigers over with.

With all of the hoopla and hype surrounding the game, the internet trash talk, the concerns about security and the battle among fans just to buy tickets, the game had almost a carnival-like atmosphere.

But it wasn’t much of a game at all as Class AAA No. 1-ranked Logan routed Class AA No. 7 Chapmanville, 108-75, before a capacity crowd of an estimated 2,000 fans at the Chapmanville Regional High School gym.

Tuesday night’s tilt was nothing like the classic on Jan. 12 at Logan’s Willie Akers Arena when the Wildcats erased a late fourth-quarter deficit to beat the upset-minded Tigers, 96-91.

This time, there were no on-court scuffles and there was no doubt about the outcome.

Logan jumped on top of Chapmanville 19-8 after one quarter and never looked back, leading the Tigers by as many as 42 points late in garbage time.

It’s over now and the Wildcats and Tigers can now go their separate ways and move forward.

Both have lots to play for.

Logan, led by superstar players Noah Cottrill and Paul Williamson — has emerged as the favorite to win the Class AAA state championship — something that it sat out to do at the beginning of the season. Logan would like to win the school’s seventh state title next month.

Chapmanville, led by the fiery Kirk, also has its goals. The Tigers currently stand at 4-1 in the Cardinal Conference and would like to close out the season as league champs.

It doesn’t stop there of course.

Chapmanville has a possible sectional title game showdown with Tug Valley on the horizon and would like to advance to the regional tournament and then to state — something a boys’ team from Chapmanville has never done.

All in all both Hatcher and Kirk were ready to move on.

“Yeah,” Hatcher said. “Now I know how (West Virginia coach) Bob Huggins and (Marshall coach) Donnie Jones feel when you are right in the middle of your conference games and you have to play a big emotional game against each other. It’s tough but both teams handled it well and the communities handled it well.”

Hatcher, ironically, teaches at CRHS.

“It wasn’t a fun day at Chapmanville Regional High School but hopefully it will be better tomorrow,” he quipped.

Kirk was also glad to put the game behind him.

“I just wanted to get this game out of the way tonight,” he said. “We’re in the Cardinal Conference and right now we’re in first place. We’ve still got to play Poca twice. Our goal at the beginning of the year was to win 15. That’s a goal that I had shot for every year when I was at Harts. Fifteen is the magic number. One thing that is important to us is the seeding. We’ve got some big, big basketball games ahead of us.”

Kirk said the atmosphere was great but all of the other distractions made it more like a “circus game.”

“We didn’t take this game lightly but it was a like a circus game. I just wanted to get this over with with all of the things that have been going on the last two or three days over the tickets,” he said.

Kirk then joked, “I thought tonight when I came in I might have to step over some elephant dung or something. I didn’t know if there might be some animals throwing peanuts at me. It’s been a circus and it’s been like that for the last few days. I just wanted to get this one over with.”

Logan improved to 12-2 on the season with the win. The only two losses this season have been to powerhouses Mountain State Academy and Baltimore City College (Md.), in a game played at WVU.

Chapmanville dropped its second straight game and fell to 8-4. The Tigers had lost a 80-76 heartbreaker to Tug Valley last Friday night at home.

With WVU signee Cottrill and Williamson leading the way, Kirk said the Wildcats might not be stopped. Cottrill poured in 34 points in last night’s game, sinking four 3-pointers, while Williamson had 28 points and five treys.

“If there’s a team in the state of West Virginia that can beat the Logan Wildcats I’d like to know who it is,” Kirk said. “I know GW is tough, but man, they just shoot the ball well. They’re really good. They’re awesome. They have two super stars and they have good instincts.”

Logan tightened up its defense against the Tigers and used its long passes and transition game to get numerous easy buckets.

“We came out and played a lot better on defense,” Hatcher said. “We did a really good job of communicating on defense and switching off. We know that we conceded a lot of points to Todd Terry tonight but he’s a great player. We felt like if we stopped their outside shooting and their penetration early and built a little bit of a lead we could get their crowd out of the game.”

Kirk said his team was flat, particularly early as the the Tigers went into the half down 47-28.

“We weren’t very good tonight. We couldn’t get anything going in the first half,” he said. “But Logan had a lot to do with that. Man, they are a fine team. Since we’ve played them the first time I’ve been keeping up with them. They have played the academy teams and I’ve been thinking, ‘My, my, aren’t they on a roll?’”

Deyonta Coleman scored five easy transition layups and finished with 15 points for the Cats.

Jordan Canada had 13 points — two of which came on a two-handed dunk in the first half. Canada, however, was whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim.

Stevie Browning added six points on two 3s, while Timmy Rein had four, Bryce Dalton and Justin Sammons had three each and Chris Kelly added two points.

Todd Terry led Chapmanville with 32 points and eight rebounds.

Matt Cook made two 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Brooks Cooper had 10 points and five assists.

Cliff Hall had seven points, while Dustin Woody, Ethan Brumfield and Zach Maynard all had four points. Maynard also dished out seven assists, while Woody handed out six.

Bubba Conley added two points.

One bright note for Chapmanville was its free throw shooting as the Tigers made 16-of-17 for 94 percent. Logan was true on 10-of-12 for 83 percent.

Tuesday night’s game put the previous meeting in perspective.

Kirk said he’s still proud of his team for what they did last month.

“You know what the definition of a miracle is. There are miracles and I think that I witnesses a mircale up at the Logan fieldhouse last month,” he said. “I’ve coached 700 basketball games and for us to do what we did up there I think that I witnessed a miracle. I believe that with all of my heart. It took a while for it to soak in. I’m a religious man and I believe in miracles. It was unreal with the players that they’ve got and what we’ve got and what we’re trying to get done. But you don’t tell your kids that and you don’t tell your fans that. That’s just part of coaching.

“But my biggest fear happened tonight.”

Chapmanville returns to action on Friday night at rival Scott. The Tigers then play at Point Pleasant on Saturday night.

Logan heads to Beckley this weekend to play in the Big Atlantic Classic, the artists formerly known as the Coal Classic.

The Cats are set to face Morgantown on Friday at 9 p.m. at the Raleigh County Armory.

Then on Saturday, Logan will play either Hedgesville or Greenbrier East.

“We haven’t been to the Armory since my first year here, so we’re real excited about going down there,” Hatcher said.

Logan also won last night’s JV game over Chapmanville, 57-42.