PARKERSBURG — Teams around the state are going to have a difficult time handling the one-two punch of Kayli Kellogg and Sadaya Jones.
Morgantown’s dynamic duo combined for 51 points in the Mohigans’ season-opener Thursday at Parkersburg South. Kellogg knocked down seven 3-pointers and scored a game-high 31 points while Jones, who scored her 1,000th career point in the first quarter, added 20 to lead Morgantown to a 95-32 victory.
“They might be the best tandem in the state,” said Morgantown head coach John Fowkes. “Kayli, she’s capable of probably dropping 30 a game, to be honest. Sadaya came in here focused. She wasn’t even thinking about the thousand points. You could kind of tell she was in the flow of the game, and everything was falling. She just plays hard. She’s a Division I recruit, and she plays to that level.”
Kellogg and Jones combined for the Mohigans’ first 16 points of the contest.
It was 14-9 after Lucie Cline netted five straight points for South, but that was as close as it would get as Jones’ jumper halted the Patriots’ momentum.
Turnovers were a major factor in the game. At the end of the first quarter, South gave the ball away on back-to-back possessions, resulting in layups by Sydney Devesenberry and Tatum DeVries to make it 24-10. The Patriots committed seven turnovers in the opening quarter alone and had 27 total in the game.
“They’re really good,” South head coach Ed Davis said of Morgantown. “I thought the kids played hard. I thought they played to the end. What we can take away is continuing to compete and give that effort.”
Fowkes is hoping his team’s defensive pressure continues to give teams fits throughout the season.
“We’re in pretty good condition and we press to pretty much wear the other team down,” Fowkes said. “In the second half, I don’t think they had any legs. You could kind of see that with the way they shot the ball. We’re pretty athletic, one through five, and we can get up and down. We can run, we can guard.”
Jones’ only 3-pointer of the game put Morgantown up 20 in the second quarter. Kellogg’s first trey of the game came at the end of the second period and made it 39-14 at halftime.
She was only just getting started.
Kellogg, who had a game-high six steals, knocked down five more threes in the third quarter and another in the fourth. She finished 7 for 11 from beyond the arc.
“First half, we were 2 for 12 from 3-point range,” Fowkes said. “We shoot a lot of 3-pointers in practice on a daily basis. I believe in that. We want to get up and down and shoot a lot of threes. We were happy with the halftime lead, but the kids were a little upset we weren’t making the shots. Second half, we came out on fire.”
Morgantown outscored South 30-2 in the third quarter to take a 69-16 advantage into the final eight minutes.
The Patriots, now 0-2, are without three key players due to injury, including projected starters Regan Shockey and Emilee Owens.
“We’re down, but the guys that played the game, I thought they played hard,” said Davis, whose Patriots get a week off before traveling to Warren next Thursday. “They’re getting valuable experience. That’s helpful.
“We got to work on a little bit of a zone tonight. We got that on film. Hopefully we can watch that and have a little bit of a secondary defense we can go to as the season goes.”
Jones and Nelson led Morgantown with six rebounds apiece while DeVries had a game-high five assists. Carper Massely chipped in nine points off the bench to contribute to the Mohigans’ attack.
Lilly Dye came off the bench to lead South with 11 points, all in the fourth quarter. She buried a trio of 3-pointers in the final stanza. Cline added 10 points and six boards.
“It was a nice crowd,” Davis said. “Home opener. That’s one cool thing is we have fan support. They always support us and we’re very appreciative of that. Hang in there with us and it’ll be different as the season goes.”
— Story by Jordan Holland
