PARKERSBURG - After an 0-3 start, Parkersburg South's girls won their second straight basketball game Thursday night, getting a combined 46 points from Keya Bartlett and Taryn McCutcheon as the host Patriots held off visiting Shadyside 68-83 at the Rod Oldham Athletic Center.
A close first quarter saw Bartlett, who canned five treys in the game, drop in 3-balls to start and finish the period, but still the Patriots trailed 14-12 after the initial eight minutes.
The second stanza, though, belonged to South by a 20-6 point advantage as the Patriots surged into a 32-20 halftime lead.
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Photo by Jeff Baughan
Parkersburg South's Miranda Workman reaches for the ball as Shadyside's Kenzie Fielding looks to pass Thursday. The Patriots won, 68-63.
South tallied nine of the first 10 points in the second to push ahead 21-15, then went on an 11-0 run to burst out to a 32-18 lead and finished the first half on top by 32-20 margin.
The second half, however, saw Shadyside, now 3-4, drill four treys - three by Karli Bonar, who connected on seven 3-balls for the night - in the third quarter to close the gap to 43-37, that happening on Bonar's third trifecta of the period - a bomb from way out on the right wing at the one-minute mark.
Then when the Tigers' Hayley Holenka began the fourth quarter with a trey and a basket in the lane, South's lead was down to 43-42, and Dana Jackson's 3-point play tied things up at 48 with 4:35 to play.
After another deadlock at 50-all, freshman McCutcheon and sophomore Bartlett took over the game for the Patriots. They scored all of the last 18 points for South down the stretch to outduel the Shadyside duo of Bonar and Holenka, who put up all but three of the Tigers' points in the final period as did the McCutcheon-Bartlett combo for the Patriots.
South still had as much as a seven-point, 62-55, lead with just 1:29 remaining before Bonar tossed in her last two treys to reduce the deficit to only 64-61 with 33.8 seconds left. But McCutcheon and Bartlett each sank a pair of free throws in the final 23.5 seconds to keep the Patriots on top at the buzzer.
For the game, Bartlett netted 24 points and McCutcheon 22, while Anna Hayton added eight for South.
Bonar collected 23 points, Holenka 17 and Toni Andes 10 for Shadyside.
''We are getting better - the girls are growing up a little bit and playing better,'' said South head coach Scott Stephens of his players. ''We made some clutch foul shots there going down to the end of the game to keep us ahead and give us the win.''
''And at the end of the game,'' Stephens noted, ''we want the ball in Taryn and Keya's hands.''
But he too was impressed with Shadyside's shooting prowess. ''Boy, can they shoot it,'' he said. ''Sure, Bonar especially with the threes, but their kids coming off the screen can shoot the ball just about better than anybody I've seen.''
