WHEELING – The third time was the charm for the Wheeling Park Patriots, who after dropping their first two meetings of the year against the University Hawks, claimed a 56-45 victory in the OVAC Class 5A third-place game behind a 40-point explosion from senior Alexis Bordas.
Bordas drilled five 3-pointers and went 9-9 from the stripe to finish with yet another sky-high scoring output.
“I was proud of the kids, they all played hard,” Wheeling Park head coach said. “Everybody who came off the bench contributed, and then obviously Lex was phenomenal. We probably haven’t talked about her enough after games because we just expect it from her at this point. But to score 40 points against a very athletic team that’s basically matching up with her everywhere she goes while the others are sitting in a zone– at some point she’s got to get the credit she deserves as far as the defenses she’s facing all year.
“She’s seen everything, there’s been very few times when teams just straight-up play man. The other kids are starting to understand what they need to do when teams are paying all the attention on her, and I thought tonight there were times when we did the right thing, made the right play and got some easy ones so that really helped us out.”
University got out to a 17-9 lead after the first quarter, the Hawks’ Hannah Stemple putting down four 3-pointers in the frame, but Wheeling Park flipped a switch in the second quarter.
After University tallied the first basket of the period to take their biggest lead of the game, Park went on a 16-0 run to go ahead for good.
Bordas nabbed a steal and drove three-quarters of the floor for an and-one which brought Park within one point, 18-19, with 5:12 showing in the quarter. A stepback jumper at the elbow by the senior gave the Patriots a 20-19 lead, and a Karringtyn Miller 3-pointer put the home team ahead 23-19 by the 3:30 mark.
Bordas had 15 points in the quarter.
“The last two times we’ve done a nice job on her, today we didn’t,” University head coach Nick Lusk said of Bordas. “We lost her too much. Give them credit, they played a good game. We didn’t come focused.”
While Bordas fueled the offensive side of Park’s scoring run, the Patriots’ defense had an equal role to play in the tides turning.
“We constantly say that defense is where we have to win basketball games, and I think we can still be better on that end of the floor,” Young said. “We dug ourselves a big hole to start, give credit to University, they came out hot, and give credit to our girls for digging deep and not only getting out of that hole but coming out with a double-digit victory against a really good basketball team.”
University couldn’t match their production from a hot opening quarter, scoring six, 10 and 12 points in each of the final three frames.
“We’ve just got to put the ball in the basket,” Lusk said. “The last two games we’ve played two top-five teams and scored 40 points. That’s not going to get it done against good teams. That’s the biggest thing.”
Stemple finished with 21 points for University, followed by Brianna Fox with 13 and Julia Maisel with 10.
Maggie Hupp was the second-highest scorer for Park with seven.
Park led 30-23 at halftime and 44-33 after three. The Patriots lead never shrank to less than seven in the fourth quarter.
Wheeling Park ends their OVAC Tournament period on a high note, and returns to regular season action against Nitro on Feb. 15. University will look to right the ship on the road against Martinsburg on Feb. 13.
— Story by Nick Henthorn
