The Logan High School Wildcats Boys’ basketball team (7-6) has a tough schedule this weekend with back-to-back games against two of the toughest teams in its Class AAA division after suffering a tough loss on Friday to its cross-county rival, the Chapmanville Regional High School Tigers (9-1).
The Wildcats are Heading to Madison, W. Va, to face its newly found rival just one county over, the Scott High School Skyhawks (7-4), on Friday and head back home to face the Shady Spring High School Tigers (8-3) Saturday.
Last Friday, the Wildcats fought hard, but ended up losing to the Tigers in overtime 70-64. Both team's star players scored at will, with the Wildcats’ Senior star, Scotty Browning, finishing with 24 points by the third quarter before having to exit the game with a concussion after falling hard while going for a rebound. The Tigers' senior star, Sal Dean, finished with 26 points, scoring 20 points in the second half and overtime.
Browning is potentially out for the next week of play, which will be a hard loss for the Wildcats since Browning has been the team’s leading scorer this season, averaging 21 points per game. The team lost key players before the season started, losing its senior big man, Jaxon Cogar, for the entire season and its best defensive senior, Aiden Slack, who is expected to return in February.
With so many seniors out, the younger players on the team have had to step up under pressure. Last season, the head coach of the Wildcats, Zach Green, usually ran a seven-man rotation with the same group of players and rarely checked in the younger players on the team, but with so many players out, he has switched up his game plan and rotated his players from seniors to freshmen testing out multiple lineups.
With two crucial games coming up for the Wildcats, I spoke with a junior guard, Derek Browning, about the team's game plan for this weekend and how they can improve after the loss to the Tigers.
I asked Browning what they need to improve on from the last game, and he said, “We need to communicate more and are going to try to slow the pace down and set up our offense more.” Browning also spoke on the team's game plan for the weekend, “We are going trap more and crash for the rebounds since we are smaller than both teams.”
Without the certainty of the Wildcats guard Scotty Browning being cleared to play Friday, the Skyhawks will also be without their star player, senior guard, Reece Carden, who is averaging 26 points per game on the season, but is out due to a foot injury.
With both teams not having their star players and a young roster for both teams, fans expect to see a different type of play on Friday. Most are excited to see how the younger players step up during what is seen as a big game since these two teams have not played one another since they met in the first round of the West Virginia Boys Basketball State Tournament, where Scott upset Logan with Carden hitting a game-winning floater in the final seconds of the game.
The Scott vs. Logan game will take place on Friday at 7 p.m. at Scott High School in Madison, W. Va, and will also be streamed live on Facebook on Mountain Dreams Media.
After the game on Friday, the Logan Wildcats will head back home to play Saturday afternoon against the Shady Spring Tigers. Shady is coming off back-to-back state championship visits, winning the Class AAA title in 2021 and losing by 1 to Fairmont Senior in 2022.
The Tigers have kept all players and will have their full regular lineup come Saturday. This will be a big test for the younger guys on the Wildcats roster.
They will meet on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Willie Akers Arena at Logan High School, and the game will be streamed live on Facebook on Mountain Dreams Media.
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