CHARLESTON, W.

Saturday, June 10, 2000

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Roman Sato has been called the best player in Ohio by the high school basketball coaches.

Add the West Virginia coaches to that list.

Sato, who has signed with Xavier, scored 32 points on 11-of-21 shooting as he led the Ohio All-Stars to a 108-100 win over West Virginia Friday night in the annual two-game series.

"The kid who’s going to Xavier is a player," Parkersburg South coach Joe Crislip said. "We just had trouble finding a way to answer him. He can jump out of the gym and he’s a heckuva shooter."

In the girls game, Ohio beat West Virginia 74-63.

The series concluded Saturday night at Chesapeake High School.

Ohio’s breakaway layups and West Virginia’s inability to hit 3-pointers fueled a second half comeback.

The Ohio stars trailed 43-37 late in the half before getting within 49-48 at the break.

But behind the scoring of Julius Johnson, Eric Daniels, and Sato, plus the inside work of Matt Marinchick, Ohio rallied for the win.

Johnson, who will play at Miami of Ohio, finished with 25 points. Daniels, a Kentucky recruit, made -of-10 shots and scored 16 points while Marinchick finished with eight.

"We’ve got a bunch of kids who can shoot the ball, but we don’t have a 6-10 kid," Crislip said.

Greg Davis led West Virginia’s stars with 21 points and Rick Cottrill had 19.

Down 33-30 late in the first half, the Ohio girls scored the final 13 points of the half to go up 43-33 and led by as many as 19 the second half in posting the win.

Sara Lochman topped Ohio with 22 points as she made 11 of 21 shots. Tracy Wyatt led West Virginia with 21 points and Crystal Brown added 16.