The 100th annual West Virginia Boys State High School Basketball Tournament is off and running at the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum.

And it was a tough morning session for a pair of Putnam County schools as both Buffalo and Hurricane bow out in quarterfinal round action.

In the opener, defending Class A state champ Charleston Catholic defeated Buffalo for the fourth time this season by a final of 61-48.

Zack Casto led the way for the Irish with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

David Godwin scored 16 as did Garrett McCarty.


The No. 3 Irish move on the semifinals on Friday with a 22-3 record.

Levi Jordan led sixth-seeded Buffalo with 14 points. Isaiah Robinson and Aaron Lewis scored 10 apiece while Dylan Rich had 14 rebounds.

It was Buffalo's first trip to the State Tournament since 2008.

The other Class A game in the first session saw No. 7 seed Wheeling Central knock off Magnolia, 58-35. Central avenged three losses to the Blue Eagles from both the regular season and sectionals.

A two-point first quarter doomed Magnolia, who came in averaging 78 a game.

Central's David Park scored 26 in the win for WC, who moves on to the semifinals to play Charleston Catholic. Brandon Wallace added 16.

Mark Winters, Magnolia's all-time scoring leader, finished his outstanding career with 20 in a losing cause.

The second game of the day was in Class AAA pitting No. 2 Beckley against No. 7 Hurricane. Beckley, a perennial power with 16 state titles, was facing a Hurricane program that was making its way to the tournament for the first time in school history.

Unfortunately, Hurricane's tournament experience will be limited to one game as Beckley downs the Redskins, 63-54.

The teams were tied at halftime, 32-32. In the third quarter Hurricane went cold and Beckly seized the lead. But the Redskins refused to go away wiping out a 12-point deficit to get within two. It was as close, though, as Lance Sutherland's crew could get in falling to the Flying Eagles.

Andrew Johnson scored 20 points to pace Beckley,which improved to 22-4 heading into Friday's semifinals. Donte Nabors had 15 while Chase Hancock contributed 13.

Hurricane finishes at 20-6. Trey Dawson had 16 and Rasaan Harris scored 14 for the Redskins.


The evening session started with Class A No. 1 seed Tug Valley topping No. 8 Notre Dame, 87-62.

Mikey Newsome scored 25 points for the winning Panthers, who a season ago captured the Class AA title.

Austin Brewer added 19 points and 10 assists for Tug Valley. The Panthers are now 22-3 pm the season. The Panthers hit 58 percent of its field goals.

Notre Dame finished at 14-9. Justin Goff had 14 and Cal Cistaro scored 13 for the Irish of former WVU star Jarrod West.

The fifth game of the day had Class AAA No. 1 Martinsburg defeating No. 8 Huntington, 60-50.

Jordan Robinson scored eight of his 10 points in the final fpir minutes to lift Martinsburg to the win and a spot in Semifinal Friday. The Bulldogs moved to 24-2 while Huntington fell to 18-7.

Donte' Grantham led Martinsburg with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Jalen Lewis added 11 points.
Arick Nicks led eighth-seeded Huntington had 19.

In the nightcap of Class A, Tucker County got 22 points from Tyler Snyder and 20 points plus 10 boards from Ian Nichols to eliminate Greater Beckley Christian, 68-61.

TC was the No. 4 seed while GBC entered as the No. 5 seed of Class A.

The Mt. Lions move to 21-3 on the season and will move on to the semfinals for the fifth time in the past six years going against Tug Valley.

Besides Snyder and Nichols, Austin Zirk added 16 points for Tucker County.

Javonne Staunton-Bailey led Greater Beckley Christian with 17 points. Elisha Kidd added 14 points and Keith Mullins had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

GBC ends at 19-6.


The 100th annual State Tournament continues Thursday with four Class AA quarterfinals and two more AAA games.

The semifinals are Friday and the three championships will be staged Saturday.