Chapmanville's Benji Adkins (20) goes up for a rebound during the Tigers sectional championship win over Mingo Central on March 1. The third-seeded Tigers will face sixth seed Ravenswood in the Class AAA quarterfinals at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning ( PHOTO by Holly Eldridge/Holly Eldridge Photography).
Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
CHARLESTON Chapmanville's quest for a second consecutive Class AA championship gets underway Thursday morning at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center against a familiar foe.
The third-seeded Tigers will meet sixth-seed Ravenswood in the Class AA quarterfinals at 9:30 a.m. in a rematch of a quarterfinal from last season.
Chapmanville jumped out to a double-digit and had to hold off a late Ravenswood rally in the 2023 state tournament defeating the Red Devils 49-43 on its way to a third state championship in eight years.
The Tigers defeated second-seeded Bluefield in the semifinals and beat fourth-seeded Charleston Catholic in the Class AA championship game.
Chapmanville, who has won Class AA state championships in 2018, 2019 and 2023, is making its seventh state tournament appearance in the past nine seasons and has won eight straight game and 14 of its last 15 games. The Tigers last loss was 70-57 at Nitro on January 30.
Chapmanville is 7-0 this season against Class AA opponents and is averaging 62.7 points per game this season.
Four players average double figures for Chapmanville with Zion Blevins leading the way with a 19.6 average. Joey Gollihue averages 18 per game, Cam Blevins is third on team with a 14.3 average and Benji Adkins averages 10.4 points a contest.
Ravenswood enters the game with a 19-6 record and has lost two of its final six regular season games before defeating Wirt County in the Region IV Section 2 championship game and then beat Buffalo in the Region IV championship.
Logan Alfred, Beau Bennett and Noah Dawson lead a Red Devils offense that averages 62.7 points per contest this season. The Red Devils are 11-5 against Class AA competition and are 0-3 against state tournament qualifiers.
Chapmanville is 4-2 against state tournament schools this season. The Tigers have lost to Class AAA top-seed Fairmont Senior and third-seed Nitro and have defeated Class AA fourth-seed Wheeling Central and AAA sixth-seed Sissonville and defeated county rival and AAA fifth-seed Logan twice this season.
The winner of Thursday's quarterfinal will face either second-seeded Charleston Catholic or seventh-seeded Trinity in the second of two Class AA semifinals at 9 p.m. on Friday night.
Top-seed Bluefield will face eighth-seeded Braxton County at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and fourth-seeded Wheeling Central taking on fifth-seeded Williamstown at 9 p.m. Thursday night with the two winners meeting Friday evening at 5:30 p.m.