Woodrow Wilson will look to end a two-year absence from the state tournament Thursday night.
A familiar enemy stands in your way.
The Flying Eagles will take on George Washington in the Class AAAA Region 3 finals at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.Tip-off will be at 7 p.m.
The winner advances to the WVSSAC state tournament next week at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
Each team has had some memorable games over the years, but GW has dominated the series in recent years. Woodrow's last win against the Patriots was March 27, 2021, a 58-50 win at Beckley.
This was GW's only loss in its bid for the Class AAAA state championship. The Patriots defeated Morgantown in the title game. In the Flying Eagles' last appearance in Charleston, Morgantown defeated Woodrow in the first round.
Since then, the Patriots have won the last six games against the Flying Eagles. That includes twice this season.
“You know, we want to win a ticket,” Woodrow Wilson head coach Rod Kidd said after last Friday's 88-60 win over Princeton in the Section 2 championship game. “They (George Washington) are standing in the way of us getting to our ultimate goal, which is state. The ultimate goal is winning, but we have to get there. We're in that game. They get in our way because we have to win and get there.
“That's the mindset our kids should have. We've got to play and prepare for them.”
GW defeated Woodrow 60-57 in Beckley on Jan. 13 and 65-49 in Charleston on Feb. 15. Woodrow senior Elijah Redfern missed Game 1, the last of seven games he missed with a broken hand.
In the GW game, Woodrow shot 29 percent from 3-point range and 38 percent overall.
Since that game, the team has gone in different directions.
Woodrow (14-9) has won four straight games and averaged 32.7 points in its last three games. The game started with a 72-67 victory over Parkersburg South, which had won seven of its previous eight games.
That included a 59-49 win over George Washington two nights ago.
The Patriots are 1-4 since defeating Woodrow. They lost to South Charleston 51-39 in the title game in Section 1, forcing them to advance to the regional finals.
Redfern leads the Flying Eagles with 19.1 points and 6.7 assists per game. Sophomore Coby Dillon scored a team-high 355 points (14.6 points per game) and is the team's leading 3-point shooter, hitting 79 of 175 (45.1 percent). He also averaged 2.0 stolen bases.
Sophomore Zion Hawthorne gives the Flying Eagles another double-digit scorer, averaging 13.0 points and 4.9 assists. Junior Jaylon Walton is the team's leading rebounder with 4.5 rebounds per game. He and sophomore Preston Clary are both averaging 7.5 points.
Noah Lewis, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, leads GW (14-9) with 12.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Dawson Lunsford has 11.1 ppg and Chance Hartwell has 10.3 ppg.
Woodrow's last postseason win over GW was on March 11, 2015, a 63-55 victory in the Class AAA Region 3 final at Beckley. That season, the Flying Eagles advanced to the state semifinals.
