PARKERSBURG — Morgantown junior guard Sharron Young stuffed the stat sheet here Thursday night inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center to help lift the defending Class AAAA state champion Mohigans to a 71-59 victory versus Parkersburg South.
The Patriots of head coach Mike Fallon, who are currently ranked No. 2 and fell 56-53 in last year’s title tilt, watched MHS score the first eight points and bolt out to an 18-4 advantage. Although the Patriots tallied the final 10 points of the quarter and twice tied it in the second, No. 1 Morgantown never trailed.
“First of all, Park South, great environment today,” admitted MHS boss David Tallman, who watched Young go for game-highs of 20 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals while also adding a pair of blocked shots. “Their fans were amazing. I love high school basketball like this. Shoutout to their community. It was awesome.
“We came out of the gates great in the first quarter and the third quarter. In between there it wasn’t so good. We love the win and it was a good win, but there’s a lot of room for us to improve for us to reach our goals.”
Izzy Everett, who finished with 10 points and joined teammates Garrison Kisner (17), Cameron Danser (11) and Brody Davis (10) in double figures, opened the affair with a 3 just 18 seconds in. Coach Fallon was forced to call a timeout after Danser hit from deep and then put one down for a 15-4 edge at 3:21 of the first. Jonathon Shrewsberry’s trifecta gave MHS a 14-point lead.
Parkersburg South, which dropped to 6-1 and returns to action next Thursday at current No. 9 Cabell Midland, received baskets from Austin Reeves and Cyrus Traugh before Jackson Smith and Seth Meadows connected from beyond the arc to close the gap to four after one.
Following two made foul shots apiece from Nathan Plotner and Aiden Blake, the Patriots were even at 22. Smith’s putback at the 2:30 mark tied it for the final time at 24.
Davis’ buzzer-beating 3 over the outstretched arm of Plotner allowed coach Tallman’s team to hold a 31-27 intermission cushion.
Plotner found Smith open for a trifecta to open the third, but that’s as close as PSHS would get. Young, who had two points in the first half, scored 15 in the third quarter. In fact, he managed those points in a span of 3 minutes. When he knocked down a trey, the Patriots trailed 49-34 with 3:24 left in the quarter.
Trailing 53-38 entering the fourth, Young started the stanza with another bomb as the Patriots were unable to get closer than 10 points. Kisner also had a jam in the fourth.
Reeves finished with 14 points to lead South, which received 13 counters from Smith as well as a dozen apiece from Traugh and Plotner.
“If that’s the best team in the state I think we are OK,” admitted coach Fallon. “We are right where we need to be. How many layups did we miss in the first quarter, and it was not because they were blocking our shots or anything. We just missed point-blank shots. We’re OK.
“I told my wife when I was leaving the house today, worst case scenario is we lose a regular season game and get better. The schedule we’ve had, I told the kids, if you would’ve told us we’d be 6-1 right now at this point you’d take it with the schedule we’ve had. We’re right there.”
Morgantown will look for a 10-1 start when it returns to action at 1:30 p.m. Saturday when Buckhannon-Upshur invades.
By JAY W. BENNETT/Parkersburg News and Sentinel
Morgantown 71, Parkersburg South 59
MHS 18 13 22 18 — 71
South 14 13 11 21 — 59
MORGANTOWN (9-1)
Cameron Danser 5 0-0 11, Izzy Everett 2 4-5 10, Sharron Young 8 2-2 20, Brody Davis 4 0-0 10, Garrison Kisner 8 1-1 17, Dakoma Neal 0 0-0 0, Jacob King 0 0-0 0, Jonathon Shrewsberry 1 0-0 3, Marty Johnson 0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 28 7-8 71;
PARKERSBURG SOUTH (6-1)
Austin Reeves 7 0-1 14, Cyrus Traugh 4 2-4 12, Jackson Smith 5 0-0 13, Nathan Plotner 4 4-6 12, Aiden Blake 0 3-4 3, Miciah Jones 0 0-2 0, Brayden Townsend 1 0-0 2, Cole Joy 0 0-0 0, Seth Meadows 1 0-0 3; TOTALS: 22 10-17 59;
3-point goals: PS (Smith 3, Traugh, Meadows 1). MHS (Everett, Young, Davis 2, Danser, Shrewsberry 1)
