At the game's most critical juncture, Charleston Catholic suddenly began doing the little things that help win games and delight coaches.

The Irish were beating Wheeling Central down the floor for easy baskets and were positioning themselves properly to draw charging fouls.

Although they trailed for slightly more than half the game, they asserted themselves in the second half and pulled away from the Maroon Knights for a 59-48 victory Friday night in the Class A semifinals at the Charleston Civic Center. A crowd of 8,000 attended.

The No. 1 Irish (21-4) will play in the state championship game for the sixth year in a row beginning at 2:30 p.m. today against No. 2 Parkersburg Catholic. The Irish won the title in 2006 and '07 but lost in the finals to Wheeling Central in '05 and again in each of the last two years.

In the Wheeling-Charleston rivalry, the Maroon Knights have earned the respect of Irish coach Bill McClanahan.

"I want to acknowledge them,'' said McClanahan. "For the past decade in Class single-A, they've been the premier program. When we started, we wanted to be competitive with them. That was our mountain that we tried to climb, and we wanted to be somebody they could look at and respect. My hat goes off to them.''

It was Catholic's third victory in three games against the Knights this season but the first two came by margins of three and four points.

After being down a point at halftime, Charleston Catholic took its first lead at 26-25 on a John Paul Tupta jumper with 6:45 left in the third quarter and, after the Knights moved in front 29-26, the Irish scored the next five points for a 31-29 lead and never trailed again.

Senior Sam Wood led the Irish with 20 points on 10-of-16 foul shooting and grabbed 17 rebounds. Tupta, who missed the quarterfinal game because of a suspension, added 12 points and, along with Bo McKown, had four assists. Seth Ritchie contributed eight points, and Triston Ritchie scored all seven of his points in the fourth quarter, finishing 3-of-3 from the field.

"I thought we played awesome as a team,'' said Wood. "I really think we worked the ball inside and spread them out and really took advantage of their aggressiveness. They usually get up in our faces, and I think we exploited that by spreading it out and really taking good shots.''

In addition to his scoring and rebounding, Wood took a second-half charge from Jordan Sorge, the Knights' leading scorer in the game with 13 points, that helped fuel the Irish surge.

McClanahan was pleased with his team's defensive positioning in forcing the charging calls.  

"Those charges, especially the one on Sorge that Sam took, were key,'' said the Irish coach. "I think that was his fourth foul, and that really affected how they played because he obviously is their key player.''

The No. 4 Knights (13-12) scored only five points in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Irish shot 65 percent (13-for-20) in the second half and led by 13 points on three occasions.

"I thought we played more like a team in the second half, I think,'' said Catholic's Seth Ritchie, who scored two baskets early in the fourth quarter to help the Irish pull away. "The first half was a little scratchy, but in the second half we came through and ran the ball and played more solid defense.''

The Maroon Knights never trailed in the first half, jumping out to a 5-0 lead and building their biggest advantage at 23-17 with 1:42 left in the second quarter. The Irish, however, scored seven of the game's next nine points and trailed 25-24 at halftime.

"In the first half I thought we played pretty well,'' said Wheeling Central coach Mel Stephens. "I thought we contained Sam Wood a little bit. And in the second half, we didn't shoot the ball very well. A few of the shots probably weren't good shots, and that enabled them to get out in transition a little bit and get a few easy baskets. Once we got behind, it was tough to chase them.''

McClanahan is not easily satisfied but liked his team's second-half play.

"I was extremely pleased with the way our players played in the second half,'' he said. "We made good decisions. We shot the ball well. We took care of the ball. There were a couple of lapses there late in the game I wasn't very pleased with. We'll address those. But other than that, I was pleased.''

In each of the past eight years, either the Maroon Knights or Fighting Irish won the title. The Knights own six titles in the span; the Irish two.

Mike Whiteford at 304-348-7948 or mikewhitef...@wvgazette.com.