MORGANTOWN — Morgantown hosted Wheeling Park in an oft-repeated battle of Class AAAA girls basketball titans Tuesday night. This time it was a classic match-up of the Patriots’ offensive juggernaut, led by freshman Alexis Bordas, who posted a gaudy 50 points against Parkesburg South on Saturday, versus the Mohigans’ staunch defense, which was surrendering just 25.6 points per game thus far on the year.
Now, when coaches say that defense never has a bad night, they aren’t kidding, and Morgantown proved it, as it survived losing a 16-point second quarter lead to shut out Park the last three minutes of the game — including consecutive blocks from Sofia Wassick and Lindsay Bechtel in the last seven seconds — to prevail, 42-39.
It looked for all the world as if the Mohigans (6-0) were going to blow their talented rivals right out of the gym and back onto I-70W in the early going, as the frenetic pace led to 10 Park turnovers and 16 transition points for MHS as it built a huge 16-3 first quarter lead. The advantage stretched to 21-5 with six minutes left in the half, and when Sadaya Jones capped her 8-point first half with a three from the corner, MHS enjoyed a seemingly comfortable 27-12 lead with a minute left before the break. But a Bordas triple, her first points of the game, and another Patriots bucket cut the lead down to a momentum-building 10points, 27-17.
Right from the start of the second half, the Patriots (6-1) were able to handle the MHS pressure defense with more poise, crashed the offensive and defensive boards with zeal, and limited the often-stagnant Morgantown offense for long stretches. Slowly, inexorably, Wheeling Park whittled away at the deficit, trailing 30-23 with 3:30 in the third, then 30-26 a minute later, then drawing to within a single bucket, 33-31, at the end of the quarter.
Finally, 15 seconds into the final 8 minutes, the score was tied at 33, and when WP’s Natalie Daugherty canned a pair of free throws with six minutes left, the Mohigans found themselves trailing for the first time since the opening minute of the game.
“It was a critical time in the game for sure,” MHS head coach Jason White said. “So often, teams that come back to tie, but never get the lead, they fall back and lose. And when you lose a big lead, and the team gets in front of you, a lot of teams kind of fold up and go home. But we didn’t.”
On consecutive possessions, junior Kate Hawkins scored on a jumper and lay-up to put MHS back on top, and after Park tied the game one last time at 39-39 with three minutes to go, Lily Jordan converted a shot in the paint to regain the slim lead with 2:12 on the clock.
That’s when White yelled to his troops, “Now we defend!” And defend they did, turning Park over after 30 seconds of textbook man and helping defense. Even after they weren’t able to get the ball in from the end line, giving the ball right back, the Mohigans again denied the Patriots a shot for another half minute. Finally, Bordas missed a contested jumper, Bechtel grabbed the rebound and was fouled. She made one of two foul shots to make it 42-39 with 55 seconds left. More stalwart team defense, and two timeouts later, Park had the ball with 30 seconds to play. Patriots guard Lala Woods finally drove to the hoop with seven seconds left, but Wassick flicked her shot out of bounds, and after Bordas received the in-bounds lob behind the arc, she rose to attempt the tying three-pointer.
It never left her hand, as Bechtel snuffed the shot, grabbed the ball shuffled forward to Wassick, and moments later the buzzer sounded, signifying the Mohigans’ gritty victory.
“I just want to make sure I kept her in front of me,” said Bechtel, who played a major role in limiting the prolific scorer to just six points. “I didn’t want her to get a shot off, and so I tried to keep her as close as possible. Even when we were ahead early, we knew they would come back at us. We know them well, and it’s always a tough game. And when they took the lead, we knew we’d just have to get defensive stops. We count on our defense, and we did the job when we had to.”
Morgantown travels to Charleston, S.C. next week for the Carolina Lowcountry Invitational.
Wheeling Park 3 14 14 8 – 39
Morgantown 16 11 6 9 – 42
WHEELING PARK (6-1)
Lala Woods 2 4-4 9 Sophie Abraham 2 0-0 4 Naliah Lekanudos 0 1-2 1 Zariah Marling 4 0-3 8 Merritt Delk 1 1-1 3 Natalie Daugherty 2 2-2 6 Alexis Bordas 2 1-2 6 Jailah Walker 0 2-2 2 Totals 13 11-16 39
MORGANTOWN (6-0)
Mia Henkins 2 0-0 4 Lily Jordan 3 2-5 8 Sofia Wassick 4 1-3 9 Sadaya Jones 3 1-2 8 Lindsay Bechtel 0 5-8 5 Kate Hawkins 3 0-0 6 Kerrington Peasak 1 0-0 2 Totals 16 9-18 42
Three-pointers – WP 2 (Woods, Bordas), MHS 1 (Jones)
