Photo courtesy of the West Virginia Press Association Tucker County’s Trevan Bonner pulls down a rebound against Pendleton County Tuesday in Class A quarterfinal action at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center. Center.

Photo courtesy of the West Virginia Press Association
Tucker County’s Trevan Bonner pulls down a rebound against Pendleton County Tuesday in Class A quarterfinal action at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center. Center.

CHARLESTON — Third-seed Tucker County used a strong second half to pull away from No. 6 Pendleton County, 59-45, Tuesday morning in Class A quarterfinal action inside the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center.

The Mountain Lions (24-2) will now face seventh-seed Greater Beckley Christian (6-20) at 11:15 a.m. Thursday in semifinal action. GBC knocked off second-seed and defending state champion Man, 63-57, to advance.

In the third meeting of the season between the Potomac Valley Conference foes, the game was tied at 25-25 at halftime.

The Wildcats, who lost to Man in last year’s title game, took a 30-29 lead with 5:23 to go in the third quarter on Clayton Kisamore’s old-fashioned three-point play.

But Tucker County answered on the other end on a short jumper by Ashton Lycliter and never trailed again.

Haden Wamsley later drained a pair of 3-pointers off of assists from Lycliter as the lead grew to 40-34 entering the final quarter.

A 13-5 run to start the fourth quarter put the Mountain Lions in control as Wamsley’s jumper made it 53-39 with 3:51 remaining.

A trey by Cole Day cut the lead to 53-42 but Pendleton County came no closer.

Wamsley had a game-high 17 points in the win, followed by Owen Knotts with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Lycliter tallied nine points to go along with five assists and Levi Bennett dished out four helpers.

“We rebounded the ball and shot much better in the second half,” said Tucker County coach Daniel Helmick, who was the point guard for legendary Mountain Lions coach Tom Gutshall during his playing days, earning trips to Charleston in all four years. “I know we are going to play good defense because we’ve guarded well all year.”

Kisamore had 15 points and six steals, Jacob Beachler nine points and eight rebounds and Dusty Smith five assists for the Wildcats, who finished the season 19-4 under first-year coach Jeremy Bodkin.

“We tried to force too man shots and didn’t run our offense at times,” Bodkin said. “I’m not going to be upset with that because we were trying.”

Pendleton County (19-4)

Tanner Townsend 3 0-0 7, Braden McClanahan 1 0-0 2, Jacob Beachler 4 0-0 9, Cole Day 4 1-4 10, Clayton Kisamore 6 3-5 15, Dusty Smith 1 0-0 2, Dillon Smith 0 0-0 0, Dustin Vandevander 0 0-0 0, Josiah Kimble 0 0-0 0, Jacob Beachler 0 0-0 0, Connor Armentrout 0 0-0 0, Evan Teter 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 5-12 45

Tucker County (24-2)

Levi Bennett 2 1-2 6, Haden Wamsley 6 2-4 17, Maddox Anderson 2 0-0 5, Ashton Lycliter 4 1-1 9, Owen Knotts 4 4-6 12, Aaron Quattro 1 0-0 3, Trevan Bonner 1 5-8 7, Brok Bennett 0 0-0 0, Blaike Adams 0 0-0 0, Zach Long 0 0-0 0, Ethan Rosenau 0 0-0 0, Justin Robeson 0 0-0 0, Cole Carr 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 13-21 59

Pendleton County 10 15 9 11 — 45

Tucker County 13 12 15 19 — 59

3-point goals: PC 2 (Townsend and Day), TC 6 (Wamsley 3, L. Bennett, Anderson and Quattro)