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Parkersburg dominates Ripley in season opener

Parkersburg’s Pheobe Hayes (5) is guarded by Ripley’s Jaelyn Hunt (30) during a girls basketball game at PHS Friday night won 79-37 by the host Big Reds. Photo by Steve Hemmelgarn.

PARKERSBURG — Freshman or not, rookie starter Breanna Wilson led the way for Parkersburg High Friday night, dropping in game-high 19 points to pace the Big Red girls over visiting Ripley 79-37 at Memorial Fieldhouse in the hosts’ season opener.

After the first half, which ended with PHS ahead by a commanding 47-21 margin, there was little doubt about the game’s eventual outcome as the Big Reds’ onslaught squared the Vikings’ record at 1-1.

After Wilson in the PHS scoring column were Shay Lee Kirby with 12 points, Aleea Crites with 10, Hannah Carroll with nine and Alex Delozier with eight, while for Ripley, Maggy Criser tallied 14 points and Lexi Miller netted 11 points while Presley Fisher garnered seven.

Wilson, who last year at this time was playing basketball for Hamilton Middle School, canned back-to-back treys, then tacked on a regular two-point basket for a personal 8-0 run to push PHS out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter.

That followed by a putback from Kirby and Crites who took a long pass for a hoop to up the count to 14-2 at the 3:18 mark. Then a 6-0 PHS spurt to close the initial eight minutes of play enabled the Big Reds to take 28-5 lead.

Then in the second half, PHS outpointed Ripley 16-11 in the third quarter and finally 16-5 in the fourth as the Vikings managed just four free throws.

PHS head coach Kenny DeMoss admitted being “nervous, because we’ve got 20 girls on the whole team — and half of them are freshmen and then there are three sophomores.”

So was the reason DeMoss was “a little skeptical” going into Friday night. “But I knew we were going to get a ton of effort from these kids — and they didn’t disappoint me.”

DeMoss also expected this team to “probably have two or three score in double figures and a bunch of 9s, 8s and 7s — and that’s what it turned out to be tonight.”

And on Wilson’s high-school debut, “She’s pretty good for a freshman,” said DeMoss, who started two freshmen, a senior and two sophomores Friday night.


Parkersburg Catholic 61, Ritchie County 52

PARKERSBURG — Veteran Parkersburg Catholic head coach Marty Vierheller described his team’s 61-52 home victory Friday night against Ritchie County as “a tale of two games.”

In the season opener for both Little Kanawha Conference programs, the Crusaderettes rolled to a big 15-3 lead after the opening stanza, but then got into huge foul trouble and watched the Rebels rally to tie the affair at 23-all by intermission.

“We came out like a house on fire and then got into some major foul trouble. What a crazy game,” said Vierheller, whose squad received a career-high 24 points from Olivia Ullman as well as a career-high 20 rebounds from Mikayla Alkire, who chipped in six points.

“It was a juggling act and Alexis Saunders had four fouls in the first half. It was a gutsy win and we learned a lot about ourselves tonight. Our first quarter was just lights out. We went from being up 14 to down by as many as six in the third.”

Saunders added 17 points to the cause while freshman Madeline Huffman contributed 14 markers for the victors, who canned 20 of 29 from the charity stripe.

PCHS, which plays Tuesday at Tyler Consolidated, outscored the Rebels 18-16 in the third and 20-13 in the final quarter.

Stephanie Kirk and Cassie Tallman led the Rebels, who play host to Philip Barbour on Tuesday, with 19 counters apiece. Abi Haught finished with a dozen points in the setback. Ritchie County, though, missed 15 of 22 from the foul line. In the fourth, PCHS connected on 11 of 15 from the line.


Clay 92, Doddridge 30

CLAY — Doddridge County trailed 26-8 after the opening stanza here Friday night and the Bulldogs came out on the wrong end of a 92-30 setback to host Clay County in the season opener for both LKC programs.

The Panthers knocked down eight 3-pointers and were led by Sarah Boggs’ game-high 17 points. Erica Boggs (15), Kacey Butcher (12), Kaleigh Brown (11) and Makayla Horrocks (10) also finished with double figures in scoring for the victors.

The Bulldogs were led by Haleigh Lipscomb’s 11 points while Corrinna Fullmer chipped in seven markers.


Calhoun County 48, Webster County 25

MT. ZION — Mikayla Smith did it all for host Calhoun County in the Red Devils’ lidlifter against Webster County Friday night.

Smith poured in 19 points and also led Calhoun with nine rebounds, three assists and seven steals as the Devils knocked off visiting Webster, 48-25.

Ashley Hershman added nine points for the winners while Katie Jones contributed seven.

Webster County (0-1) was paced by Desirae Cochran’s nine markers.

Calhoun (1-0) returns home Tuesday to take on Wood Christian for a 6 p.m. tip-off.

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