Defense Shines Again for No. 1 Indians in 55-32 Victory Against Elkins; BHS Advances to Semifinals
By Chris Johnson on March 18, 2025
Stingy defense and balanced scoring has been a successful combination for the Bridgeport boys basketball team through the first 24 games of the season and it worked again on the biggest stage yet at the state tournament at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Phoenix Sickles posted a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds, Anderson McDougal added 13 points and Landon Sanders had 11 as the Class AAA top-seeded Indians defeated No. 8 Elkins 55-32 to advance to the semifinal round.
The Bridgeport defense limited the Tigers to single digit points in each of the first three quarters and gave up just 11 in the fourth. It marked the ninth time this year the Indians have held an opponent to less than 40 points in a game and they have allowed 10 points or less in a quarter now 61 times.
“That’s a goal we have written on our big board, we want to hold a team to 10 or less every quarter,” BHS coach Davie Marshall said. “I got to give credit to Elkins and Coach (Amrit) Rayfield. He coaches them up and they make things hard on you because they have a lot of patience on offense. They can make you play ugly.
“But I thought our guys rolled up their sleeves and went to work on defense.”
BHS, now 24-1, also extended its overall win streak to 21 games and picked up its first victory on the Coliseum floor since 2016.
The Indians will face a familiar foe in the semifinals as another Big 10 school, Fairmont Senior, awaits. Bridgeport swept the regular-season series with the Polar Bears with 53-35 and 56-38 victories.
“We’re going to prepare for them like it’s the first time we will be seeing them,” Marshall said.
After Drew Hinzman scored to give Elkins a 2-0 lead, the Indians came back with two from Sickles and 3s from McDougal and Sanders to take a six-point lead and they never looked back.
Sickles drained a 3 at the 6:17 mark of the second quarter to extend the BHS lead to 13-4 and force a Tigers’ timeout. He then hit another shortly after the timeout and the Indians would go on to outscore the Tigers 17-8 in the second.
“They are just so aggressive on defense,” Rayfield said. “They put pressure on the ball and everyone sits down and guards. You don’t get anything easy from them. That’s just what Bridgeport does defensively. And I thought Sickles was huge for them tonight.”
Elkins slowed the game down enough to limit Bridgeport to 37 field goal attempts. But the Indians shot 49 percent from the floor and 50 percent from 3-point range.
Sickles also had a pair of assists and blocked three shots. McDougal added three rebounds, three assists and four steals to his 13 points including two pivotal steals and layups in the second half.
Sanders finished with four assists to lead the Indians, who assisted on 13 of their 18 made shots.Jack Sptafore chipped in with eight points, three assists and four steals. Carter Zuliani rounded out the scoring with three points and added five rebounds and three blocked shots.
“I think if you ask any of these guys, they don’t care who scores, they just want to win games,” Marshall said. “They are so unselfish.”
Fairmont Senior advanced to the semifinals earlier on Tuesday as the Polar Bears held on for a 47-46 victory against No. 5 Chapmanville.
Trea Cumberledge and Darrell Claybrook led the way for the Polar Bears (18-5) with 15 points apiece and Julz Butler added 13 as well as six rebounds and four assists.
In the first game of the second session Tuesday, Class AA No. 1 Williamstown had no problem getting past No. 8 Buffalo, 74-39, and advancing to the semifinals.
The Yellowjackets built a 54-14 halftime lead against the Bison. Jayden Bryant led four players in double digits with 27 points. Cruz Islay added 14 points, Tyler Keiser has 11 and Parker Schramm had 10.
The best game of Day 1 was the the final one as Wyoming East won a 44-42 thriller against Logan to advance to the Class AA semifinals.
Talan Muscari led the Warriors with 18 points. Zach Hunt added 10 points.
Matt Hatfield paced the Wildcats with 14 points.
Editor's Note: Top photo features Sickles. Middle photo is of Sanders and Spatafore puts up a shot in bottom photo. Photos by Teran Malone for WV MetroNews/The WVSSAC. Check out more of his photos from the tournament HERE
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