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Big Red girls play for MSAC crown today

Parkersburg’s Alex Delozier shoots a 3-pointer while Big Red teammate Shay-Lee Kirby looks on during a game earlier this season. The Big Reds will take on Huntington tonight at the South Charleston Community Center in the Mountain State Athletic Conference championship game. Tip is scheduled for 6 p.m. Photo by Jay W. Bennett.

PARKERSBURG — Break their pressure.

That, according to Parkersburg High head girls basketball coach Kenny DeMoss, is what the fourth-ranked Big Reds (17-4) specifically need to do today versus No. 1 Huntington (18-3) in the 6 p.m. MSAC championship game at the South Charleston Community Center.

“The (three) teams (including Parkersburg South) that have beaten them have broken their pressure,” said DeMoss. “Jordyn Dawson, their best player and probably the state player of the year, is at the front of that press. So if you don’t get the ball by her, you’re in trouble. Really, their front four on their press are all pretty good.

“If we get by their pressure, that’s the key. And try to keep (5-10 senior) Dawson off he glass.”

DeMoss also singled out Highlander point guard Lexi Sheffield simply by saying, “You can’t let that girl shoot. She killed us last year at their place.

“But then all their first five or six are pretty good. Still though, we’re not going to change for them; we’re going to make them adjust to us.

“Even if we break the pressure, we’re still going to play our game.”

PHS senior guard Alex Delozier, who is “looking forward” to playing Huntington today, said that a win over the Highlanders “would give us all more confidence heading into the tournament” next week.

Freshman Big Red 5-10 point guard Breanna Wilson admits “there’s a lot of freshmen (nine) on the team this year. But I kind of had a feeling we’d be good this year because we work well with each other, and a lot of us (freshmen) have contributed” to the team’s success.

PHS sophomore 5-9 guard Shay-Lee Kirby thinks “this year’s team has better communications with each other. A lot of the freshmen this year too have stepped up a lot; they’re actually really good and they’ve helped us.”

For Big Red senior guard Hannah Carroll, a sixth man for DeMoss now who has started, “this year’s been awesome because me, Alex and Shay are the only returning varsity players, so it’s all of these younger freshmen who are really talented and have helped out a lot.”

PHS freshman frontline player Madi Mace sees the Big Reds being as good as they are this year because “we work really hard; our practices are intense. We’re like a big family, but I didn’t know we’d be coming this far. I’m actually really excited that we’ve been doing really good.”

Another Big Red frosh cager in 5-10 Aleea Crites, who plays up front, “didn’t really” expect to start as a freshman, but is. “It was kind of like a goal, like I really wanted to (start).” She thinks the team plays so well, because “we work together a lot. It’s always us together, like there’s no ‘I.’ We work a lot on passing and trying to find the open person. I score sometimes, but I work more on defenses and rebounding — that’s what my main things are to try and do to help out.”

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