Prep boys basketball Class AA state final: Two Sancombs step up for Wheeling Central

The Maroon Knights entered the fourth quarter on Saturday protecting a four-point lead. Williamstown missed a shot on the first possession of the frame, but Wheeling Central gave the ball back on an offensive foul.

Yellowjackets senior point guard Cruz Isaly, listed at an even 6 feet, sized up Sancomb and attacked.

Sancomb, giving up 5 inches or so, got his hand in there and blocked it.

And if you had told Sancomb he would record a blocked shot in the state final?

“I’d have thought it would be really cool,” the sophomore guard said.

That was only one of Williamstown’s seven empty offensive trips to begin the fourth quarter, during which time the Maroon Knights got in gear with a 30-10 closing run to first rally from behind and then run away with a 59-40 victory.

If Sancomb’s rejection wasn’t exactly Hakeem Olajuwon-esque in its ferocity, it was indicative of Wheeling Central’s gritty, find-a-way-to-get-it-done defense against a Yellowjackets club that hadn’t scored fewer than 61 points since the last time they met Wheeling Central on Feb. 1.

Sancomb figured he might have that opportunity, too, after workshopping the move in practice.

“The last few practices, actually, we were playing some help defense and working on that,” Sancomb said. “I’ve been trying to practice help defense, just playing off the guy a little bit, because there’s three main guys on [Williamstown]. You gotta be ready. They drive; they spin a lot.

“I sat on the spin, and I saw him shoot it. Blocked it.”

Sancomb’s older brother — you might have heard of him; Eli Sancomb was tabbed the Gatorade Player of the Year earlier in the week and then the tournament MVP on Saturday — made the most eye-catching offensive play of the game. He banked in a running lefty 3-pointer at the halftime horn, from a step or two shy of the silhouette of the Mountain State in the WVSSAC center-court logo.

He had some competition from his brother, though, for the most important triple of the game. Luke drained a trey from the wing with 1:21 to go in the third quarter that stretched Wheeling Central’s burgeoning lead from one point to four.

The Maroon Knights did nothing but add to it in the fourth.

“Just gotta hit it, man,” Luke Sancomb said of his triple. “I work on my shot all the time. Right when [a teammate] threw it to me, I knew it was gonna go in. I had a lot of confidence in that shot.”

So did his older brother.

“I have the most confidence in him,” Eli said of Luke. “I knew he was gonna step up today, because he puts in more hours than anyone I’ve ever met. I knew he was gonna step it up today for sure.”

Eli Sancomb did his part, and then some, too — 26 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, two steals and, yes, two blocks of his own — as well as gracefully fending off a question in the postgame news conference asking whether anyone in the state could guard him.

Given the opportunity to toot his own horn, Eli Sancomb had no interest in going down that road.

“I don’t really focus on that at all,” he said. “I focus on winning. That’s really just about it.”

And, as Williamstown coach Scott Sauro pointed out after the game, the Maroon Knights got plenty more than just their biggest star’s stat line to do so.

“Somebody asked me before the game, ‘Eli Sancomb this, Eli Sancomb that,’ and he’s a tremendous talent, OK?” Sauro said. “But they’re not a one-trick pony. They have other guys that can play, and that’s why they’re in this game.”

Indeed, Max Olejasz scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Troy Anthony chipped in eight points, and Tyler Dean produced seven.

As for Luke Sancomb — who, Sauro noted, hit four out of the five 3-pointers he tried in the regular-season meeting against the Yellowjackets, he had to settle for four points — and one big block — on Saturday.

But that was more than enough as part of a complementary effort for a championship.