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B-UHS earns third straight state tourney bid with win over John Marshall

TENNERTON — The Buckhannon-Upshur Lady Buccaneers put the brakes on John Marshall’s title hopes in the second half Tuesday, and instead accelerated themselves to a third consecutive berth in the Class AAA state tournament in Charleston.

The Lady Bucs earned a Region I co-championship win by dropping visiting John Marshall, 71-50.

The Class AAA No. 3 Lady Bucs have also now set school records for most wins in a season, and consecutive playoff bids. Buckhannon-Upshur’s current record is 22-3.

“We got a little complacent in the second quarter,” B-UHS coach Jeremy Maxwell said. “They (John Marshall) were able to play even with us at that point. Once we got to making playing fun again by executing fundamental basketball, things got a lot easier for us.”

Buckhannon put up a 20-12 lead after the first frame. The visiting Lady Monarchs pulled to within 5 points when trailing the Lady Buccaneers 30-25 at intermission.

Third quarter scoring was 23-16 in favor of B-U, who led 53-41 heading into the fourth stanza.

Alli Robinson notched a team-high 15 points for the Bucs, to go along with 4 rebounds and 2 takeaways. Robinson was solid with a 7-of-8 effort from two-point field goal range. Audrey Gaudet recorded 14 in the scoring column in part due to a 5-of-6 field goal margin. Gaudet also nabbed 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

Hanna McClung banked a balanced stat sheet with 11 points, 5 assists and 5 steals. Three players put in 8 points each for the Lady Buccaneers, as Lauren Louk, Makayla Reynolds and Ashton Maxwell all factored in on the score sheet. Lauren Bennett inked a team-high 7 assists on the stat sheet to go along with 4 points.

Buckhannon-Upshur will enter the state tournament March 8 as a No. 2 seed set to take on No. 7 St. Albans. The Bucs cruised past that opponent, 61-29, earlier in the year. Maxwell said the St. Albans Red Dragons are a much-improved team at this point in the season.

“They’re not the same team we beat earlier on now,” he noted. “We expect them to come at us with a strong effort. We just have to focus when it is game time in Charleston next week.”

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