MORGANTOWN — Most basketball games aren’t decided in the first 10 minutes. When those 10 minutes include one team making a 20-2 run, however, the outcome really starts to come into focus.
That was the case Monday when Morgantown (12-4), losers of three straight and four of their last six, opened the game on a 20-2 run against visiting Parkersburg South (10-6) in an OVAC 5A semifinal matchup en route to a 61-46 victory.
“That was our biggest goal,” MHS coach Doug Goodwin said. “We feel we’ve been really slow to start in the first quarter and (Monday) we wanted to come out and be more aggressive.”
After falling to Wheeling Park last Tuesday, Morgantown dropped a pair of contests to schools from Kentucky over the weekend, resulting in the team’s worst stretch in a number of seasons.
Goodwin said the team took Sunday to regroup and the Mohigans got off to a strong start on Monday.
“The kids rebound quicker than the coaches do about these things,” Goodwin said. “They’re usually up and ready to roll.”
The Mohigans, the No. 1 seed in the OVAC Tournament, began the game in their full-court press and really gave the Patriots fits on offense. Parkersburg South wasn’t plagued by excessive turnovers or got caught playing too fast, but Morgantown’s aggressive defense contested nearly every shot, leading to PS shooting 1-10 in the opening frame.
“I think early on, from the coaching staff down, we just didn’t have the intensity that we needed to have at the beginning of the game,” Parkersburg South coach Ed Davis said. “We had talked about a lot of things and we didn’t do any of them offensively to get a good shot.”
The Patriots did not throw in the towel, however, and actually outscored their hosts the rest of the way, 44-41. Climbing out of that 18-point hole just ultimately proved too difficult.
Parkersburg South got as close as 11 points in the second and third quarters but never found that final burst to cut Morgantown’s lead to single digits.
“When you get behind like that, you cut it to 12 then give up a basket or two and it’s just exaggerated,” Davis said. “Even though you’ve done a lot of good things, you’ve kind of got to start over again.”
Offensively Morgantown was powered by junior Sadaya Jones, who scored 10 points in each of the first and third quarters and finished with a game-high 23.
“Sadaya does a really nice job,” Goodwin said. “She had good, clean looks (Monday) and good, strong takes to the basket.”
Lily Jordan was next for the Mohigans with 19 points and Kayli Kellogg finished with 13.
Lucie Cline led Parkersburg South with 14 points, including four of the team’s 10 three-pointers. Gracie Shamblin, playing in her first game in nearly three weeks, came off the bench and scored 11.
Morgantown advances to Saturday’s OVAC 5A championship. The Mohigans will face Wheeling Park, who defeated Steubenville (Oh.) 75-43. It is a rematch of last season’s OVAC Championship, which MHS won 59-49. It is the teams’ eighth matchup in the last two seasons.
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 61, Parkersburg South 46
PSHS 2 12 14 18 — 46
MHS 16 8 21 16 — 61
PARKERSBURG SOUTH (10-6) — Shockey 1 0-0 2; Singer 1 1-2 4; Cline 5 0-0 14; Schaffer 2 0-0 5; Richards 1 0-0 3; Owens 3 0-0 7; Shamblin 4 1-2 11; Yost 0 0-0 0.
MORGANTOWN (12-4) — Wassick 0 0-0 0; Jones 9 2-3 23; Kellogg 5 2-2 13; Jordan 8 3-4 19; Smith 1 2-2 4; Hatcher 0 0-0 0; Howell 1 0-0 2; Alsop 0 0-0 0; Davis 0 0-0 0.
3-Pt. Goals — Parkersburg South 10 (Cline 4, Shamblin 2, Singer 1, Schaffer 1, Richards 1, Owens 1). Morgantown 4 (Jones 3, Kellogg 1).
