TENNERTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers battled the No. 1 Morgantown Mohigans for the first 16 minutes of the contest, but trailed off in the second half in a 72-37 setback.

The Bucs, who trailed by a 29-19 margin at the break, couldn’t slow down the outside shot of the Mohigans who drained 11 three-pointers.

The Bucs are now 1-1 on the season after playing a pair of top 10 teams in the first week with Wheeling Park on Tuesday and the top-ranked Mohigans Friday night.

Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Travis Foster said playing two top opponents early on showed his team where they need to be come tournament time in March.

“I scheduled these games early in the season on purpose,” stated Foster. “I wanted to see where we need to be. To come out of this week at 1-1, I am really proud of the team. They worked really hard this week. Morgantown had a lot of fire power, and they exposed us a little bit with the three-point shot. They are a great program and are number one for a reason.”

Foster hopes the early tough schedule has his Bucs prepared for the rest of the season.

“Our players saw two of the top teams in the state this week,” stated Foster. “Now we have games coming up next week and the rest of the month, that if we keep our intensity and positivity up, I think we can really do well in December if we stay healthy.”

The Bucs were down early by a 7-2 score but Harrison Walker, who had a team-high 20 points for the Bucs, scored consecutive baskets making it a 7-6 contest.

Following a Morgantown basket, Lamar Hurst drained a three pointer deadlocking the game at 9-9.

Morgantown went on a 9-0 run between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter for an 18-9 lead before Walker canned a three-pointer making it an 18-12 game.

A Shawn Blandino free throw kept the Bucs down by seven, at 26-19, but right before the half, the Bucs turned the ball over and Alec Poland drained a three-pointer at the first-half buzzer putting the Bucs down by 10, at 29-19.

The Bucs never recovered as Morgantown started the third quarter with a pair of three pointers to up their advantage to 35-19.

A lay-up by Mason Hyre made it a 35-21 contest but Morgantown went on an 11-0 run for a 46-21 lead with 3:12 left in the quarter.

The Bucs trailed 52-28 heading into the fourth quarter.

Buckhannon-Upshur could not get any closer than 22 points in the final frame.

“Despite the score, I was happy with how we battled,” said Foster. “With all of the inexperience we have at the varsity level, I felt that we fought hard. We competed in the first half but then the third quarter rolled around. The number one team in the state stepped up their defense and it put us in some bad situations and it took us out of our game plan.  We aren’t good when we try to create instead of just letting the game come to us.”

Morgantown was led by Sha-ron Young who scored a game-high 24 points.

Following Walker in the scoring column for the Bucs were Hurst with nine points and Hyre with four.

“We lost the game,” concluded Foster. “We want to win the game against them that will get us to Charleston in March. We will get back to work on Monday. That is who we are. We need to fix the five or six minutes of that game in the third quarter that went bad for us. We work hard and will continue to do so as we work things out.”

The Bucs will return to action Wednesday as they host Lincoln at 7:30 p.m.