MORGANTOWN – Two weeks ago, the Morgantown High School girls’ basketball team visited Wheeling Park and suffered its first loss of the season 55-45.
The Mohigans (9-2) were without their senior captain, Sadaya Jones, in the loss on December 17. However, she was available on Tuesday night for her team and made a huge difference this time in a decisive 58-37 victory over No. 3 Wheeling Park.
Two-time Mary Ostroski award winner Alexis Bordas led all scorers with 20 points for the Patriots (8-4), but the Mohigans held her to just 8 for 27 from the field, including 2 for nine from three-point range.
Bordas came into the contest averaging over 35 points per game. She scored a school-record 58 points against Buckhannon-Upshur last week.
The Mohigans were led by sophomore Kayli Kellogg, who scored 19 points. She also added eight rebounds and four assists. Freshman Sydney Deusenberry added 10 points as six players scored at least six for MHS.
“That defense started in the fourth quarter Saturday against Parkersburg,” MHS head coach John Fowkes said. “Sadaya started playing that kind of defense then too, and she carried that over tonight in this game. If you can hold a player like Alexis Bordas to what we did in the game, you’re going to win a lot of games.”
Both teams opened the game strong defensively, as the score was only 3-3 midway through the first quarter. MHS closed the first eight minutes strong and took a 13-9 advantage into the second.
The Mohigans took a 16-11 lead 2:30 into the second quarter, but Wheeling Park tied the game on a 5-0 run over the next 90 seconds.
Baskets were traded as MHS clung to its one-possession lead 20-18 with two minutes to go, but a quick 5-0 run swelled the lead to seven heading to halftime.
“In those two weeks when we didn’t play games, we worked on sharing the basketball during practice,” Fowkes said. “We are super proud of Kayli; she’s been moving the ball more recently. I think she had four assists tonight, along with eight rebounds. She’s playing a total game and has been involved in everything.”
Kellogg extended the lead to 12 with a deep triple two minutes into the second half. The lead grew to as many as 14, but Bordas hit a big triple to spark an 8-0 run, and the Patriots cut into the lead 39-29.
But just as they’d done in the first half, the Mohigans answered with a run of their own, this time 5-0 to end the third quarter and take a 44-29 lead into the fourth.
MHS didn’t allow the Patriots to come within 12 points of the lead in the final frame, holding them to single-digit scoring in three quarters.
“They’re a young team that’s growing, and we knew that would happen,” Wheeling Park head coach Ryan Young said. “They didn’t have Sadaya Jones when they came to our place, and they start two sophomores and a freshman. But since then, they’ve gained some good experience and you can tell from watching them tonight. We just have to adjust going forward if we see them again, which we probably will.”
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 58, Wheeling Park 37
WP 9 9 11 8 – 37
MHS 13 12 19 14 – 58
Wheeling Park (8-4) – Bordas 8 2-2 20 Miller 3 0-0 8 Hupp 0 1-2 1 Hunt 2 2-2 6 Downer 0 2-4 2
Morgantown (9-2) – Kellogg 7 2-2 19 Deusenberry 1 7-9 10 DeVries 2 2-4 7 Jones 3 0-2 6 Hatcher 4 0-1 8 Nelson 2 4-4 8
3pt goals made – Wheeling Park 4 (Bordas 2 Miller 2); Morgantown 5 (Kellogg 3 DeVries 1 Deusenberry 1)
