MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Despite three players in double digits and a late push that cut Parkersburg South’s lead to four points, Morgantown’s slow start cost them Wednesday night’s home game against the Patriots, 70-65.
“You can’t give up 70 points,” MHS coach Jason White said. “We’re not a team that can [do that] and expect to win a game. I look at it as a defensive problem for us, which is something that we’ve hung our hat on the last five games.”
The Patriots (3-10) were up by 12 points at the 3-minute mark in the first quarter, putting a full-court press on the Mohigans (5-8) that worked as perfect as it was intended forcing multiple turnovers on long passes. In the closing minutes of the quarter, juniors Cat Wassick and Berit Johnson hit two long 3-pointers to cut the deficit to eight points, but just as they began to heat up the Mohigans were once again chilled, going 0 of 3 from 3-point land and 3 of 6 from the field to stay behind the Patriots at 36-19.
Shooting, though cold in the first half, wasn’t the biggest problem for the Mohigans entering the half but instead was fouls. In the second quarter alone, South went 8 of 8 from the charity stripe as Morgantown ended with 10 fouls between five girls.
That script was flipped in the third quarter as South picked up two out of the gate, giving Morgantown some room from the deadly press. With the pressure off of her, Johnson nailed a corner trey to cut the Patriots’ lead to 10 points with 5:30 remaining in the quarter. As soon as they began to play clean ball, Morgantown began to foul again in the worst way, picking up four shooting fouls to give South seven free points. Literally, at the last second of the third, Lindsay Bechtel was fouled while shooting – a point of contention for the Patriots’ bench – who sank both of her free throws to bring Morgantown within 11 points at 54-43.
The final stanza saw Morgantown play lights out, forcing 14 total turnovers and cutting the lead down. Three of those turnovers resulted in six points for Wassick who put up two fast-break layups and hit two free throws to cut the deficit to six points. But with time as their enemy, the Mohigans couldn’t complete the comeback. After coming within four points, South maintained possession long enough to chew clock and preserve their third win of the year.
“We just turned it over against the press. We forced long passes, [and] we didn’t do a good job of making the right pass all the time. What passes we did by that weren’t deflected was such a rainbow that it gave them plenty of room to run their defense. On the flip side, the kids were able to settle down at the half after making a couple of buckets.”
Makenna Winans led the Patriots with 24 points, while sharpshooter Erin Williams had 22 to back her up. Skylar Bosley ended with 14 points, 10 of which came in the second half.
Kaitlyn Ammons paced the Mohigans in the loss, netting seven field goals and going 4 of 4 from the line for 18 points. Bechtel and Wassick each had 14 points.
“It was a tale of two halves,” White said. “[With fouls] we have to play the game smarter than that. But our kids showed a lot of heart in the second half. Getting down 17 at the half it would have been really easy to lay down and give up, but they kept battling.”
Morgantown returns to action on Friday with a road game at rival No. 7 University. What could be a redemption game, White is hoping his team doesn’t focus too much on mistakes made and keeps pushing tempo while playing strong man defense.
“I’m excited about it, it has the potential to be a great basketball game. I told them, ‘You don’t want to walk off the court with regrets,’ ” he said. “But [they will because they know] they’re better than that. We don’t have that team maturity to shake off a mistake and learn from it. But that’s part of growing up. And it’s something we’ve done a better job of not doing since the turn of the year. It reared its ugly head [Wednesday night] and we need to put that back to bed.”
Winans joins the 1,000-point club
Winans, a senior at Parkersburg South, broke the 1,000-point threshold in the Patriots’ win at Morgantown with her team-leading performance. Winans will be attending Charleston Southern University on a full-ride athletic scholarship this fall.
“I’m just happy to finally get it, that was my goal as a freshman,” Winans said.
As for the win, she sees it giving her team confidence heading into the rest of the season.
“We’ve been playing well we just haven’t been able to finish games,” she said.
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