[PirateInAshland]

Mingo Central won the Tug River Rivalry last night at the Williamson Field House. Check out this last second shot to give the miners the win!

[Warthog]

Sounds like this was a great game

[Big Don]

It was a great game! Hats off to Mingo Central for the W. Big shot at the end!

The Pirates are a very young team. They hustle and play with alot of heart and don't quit! Give this team a year or two and they will be dangerous.

[RunItUpTheGut]

Why isn't Mingo much better than they are?
It seems like with the school they consolidated, they would be very tough.

[MCMiner247]

Why isn't Mingo much better than they are?
It seems like with the school they consolidated, they would be very tough.

You're thoughts are like mine were my senior year....when you look at all the four former schools, each one had a time when its basketball programs were making it to Charleston for the state tournament year in, year out. Everyone thought that first year we'd be unstoppable and be the dream team but with four different styles of play coming together its taken a while to mesh (now in year 3).

Mingo Central is a part of the Cardinal Conference (Tolsia, Scott, Poca, Herbert Hoover, Sissonville, Wayne, and Chapmanville) and are required to play all those teams home/away in the regular season and mostly all the teams are highly competitive and talented. Additionally, MC's sectional is regarded as one of the toughest in the state.
In 2011, we were beat out in the 2nd round of sectionals by Tug Valley who went on to win the Class "AA" Championship, in 2012, we were beat in the second round again by Scott by 2 points....SHS later advanced to the state tournament, losing in the first round.

No team has any excuses w, but we do go up against some of the best competition in the state when tournament time rolls around. Hopefully this year though, we'll have a different result. The kids have came together even more so this year and the program has very few bugs. Coach Napier is doing a fantastic job and his ability showed in the last 8 seconds of this game against Belfry.....he just smiled at the guys, drew up the play, and they executed.

Here's some interesting numbers though!;

-In 29 Out of the last 30 Years, Atleast One Mingo County Team was at the state tournament. (Absent in '05) (96.6% of The Time)

-There has been 18 Years, when 2 Mingo County Schools were at the State Tournament (Never in the same class).

-Mingo County has 74 State Tournament Appearances
Currently 8 Consecutive Appearances (Missed in 2005)


State Tournament Appearances:
Burch-12 (16 Sectional Titles)
Chattaroy-5 (10 Sectional Titles)
Gilbert-6 (12 Sectional Titles)
Kermit-6- (12 Sectional Titles)
Liberty-2 (3 Sectional Titles)
Lenore-2 (5 Sectional Titles)
Matewan-9 (18 Sectional Titles)
Tug Valley-10 (15 Sectional Titles)
Williamson-26 (45 Sectional Titles)

[RunItUpTheGut]

^
Good info!

[PirateInAshland]

Hey MCMiner247, if I'm not mistaken didn't Burch win more basketball games than any other WV high school in the 90's? Or something along those lines.

Also, I know this is about basketball, but I'm surprised the football hasn't been more powerful yet. I mean there were honestly years when Matewan and Gilbert alone would have been able to play with Belfry... I really expected that to be a total force right out of the gate together.

I would also say a move up to competing at the AA level warrants at least a few years of transition for these kids as well... It can't be easy moving into a class with the likes of Wayne and Bluefield in football.

[Belfry0304]

This was a fantastic game. I have to say I'm impressed with the progress of Coach Thompson's squad. He has them playing hard and improving on a game by game basis. We go pretty deep on the bench as well, and every kid in the rotation will return in 2014-2015 and I'd say 85% of the rotation will be back in 2015-2016. The 8th grade class is pretty solid with a few basketball-exclusive players who don't play football to go with a few (Jaret James is the biggest one) who don't play football at BHS. We are definitely excited about the next few years.

Mingo Central can flat out shoot the rock, #35, #4, and a few others will absolutely strip the net if they're left open. Had Belfry not fallen behind early, this one may have gone our way. Central came out free firing from three and draining them. Luckily, the Pirates made a good run before the half to put them in striking distance in the second half and they finally struck with 7.5 seconds left. Cameron Catron hit a huge shot to go up by 1, unfortunately Mr. Hatfield for the Miners just made a great play with a hand in his face.

Catron and Bentley probably both played their best games yet and that's a good sign for BHS. Catron is not a scorer by any means but is a definite pest at the point as the 6th man, reminds you a lot of Ohio State's Aaron Craft. The game that we need BAD is scheduled for 7:00 tonight against the Hawks of Pike Central.