WHEELING — In a rematch of a Class AAAA semifinal from last season, the top-ranked Morgantown girls’ basketball team traveled north to visit the No. 2 Wheeling Park Patriots inside the Palace on the Hill Tuesday evening.
After a close first half, sophomore Alexis Bordas took over in the second half for Wheeling Park (5-1), helping her team outscore the visitors by 12 in the second half to extend a four-point halftime lead to a 19-point victory.
The Mohigans (4-2) drop their second straight game of the year and will now turn around to play University, who beat the Patriots a little over a week ago, on Friday.
“Wheeling Park is a very good team,” first-year MHS head coach Doug Goodwin said after the game. “We didn’t keep them in front on defense like we had talked about pregame and they hurt us. Lindsey (Bechtel) had a tough matchup on Bordas trying to keep her in check all day long. They’re talented.”
Bordas, a first-team all-state selection a year ago, led all scorers with 24 points. She shot 9 for 17 from the field with two coming from long range and a perfect 4 for 4 from the line.
Early on, it seemed that the Patriots would be in control all night, jumping out to a 9-2 lead just four minutes into the game. But out of a timeout, MHS went on a quick 6-0 run to close the gap and would only trail by three, 13-10, at halftime after the teams traded buckets in the final 90 seconds.
The momentum carried over for the Mohigans into the second frame, as they grabbed their first lead 18-17 with four minutes until halftime, but the Patriots responded as they did all game to swell the lead to four, 26-22 at the half. Sophie Abraham made a layup at the buzzer for two of her 16 points, joining Bordas as the only Patriots in double-figures. Junior Lily Jordan paced MHS with 17 points, and Sofia Wassick added 15 for the Mohigans.
“We didn’t do well getting to help side and stopping their drives,” Goodwin said of what went wrong defensively. “Rebounding also definitely hurts, especially when they’re missing shots and then we are fouling on the second-chance opportunity.”
Another problem for the Mohigans was breaking the press of WPHS, which caused havoc in the fourth quarter specifically, as MHS only managed six points in the final eight minutes of play.
The Mohigans shot just 3 for 17 from three-point range and made 3 out of 9 free throws as well. Park shot 13 of 19 from the line.
MHS will now turn around to play one more game before the holiday break. The Mohigans will meet crosstown rival UHS on Friday, December 23rd with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m. at University High School.
Wheeling Park 63, Morgantown 44
WPHS 13 13 19 16 – 63
MHS 10 12 16 6 – 44
Wheeling Park (5-1)
Abraham 11 2-4 16; Woods 10 3-5 6; Huffman 4 1-2 4; Bordas 17 4-4 24; Daugherty 7 0-0 6; Heller 3 0-0 2; Delk 3 3-4 5
Morgantown (4-2)
Wassick 15 3-6 15; Jordan 19 0-3 17; Sweeney 3 0-0 2; Bechtel 7 0-0 7; Hawkins 6 0-0 3
3pt. Goals – MHS 3 (Bechtel 1, Hawkins 1, Jordan 1); WPHS 4 ( Bordas 2, Woods 1, Huffman 1)
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