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Parkersburg Big Reds win sectional over Parkersburg South

Late 3-pointer lifts PHS past South

Photo by Joe Albright Parkersburg’s Bre Wilson takes a hard cut down the lane to the basket against Parkersburg South during the Big Reds’ 51-49 Region IV, Section 1 championship win over the Patriots Friday night inside PHS Memorial Fieldhouse.

PARKERSBURG — If PHS fans thought the Big Red girls’ basketball team cut things close in its first victory over Parkersburg South this season, then in the words of Bachman Turner Overdrive, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Bre Wilson’s 3-ball with 14 seconds remaining sealed the first Class AAA sectional championship in the nine-year tenure of what is expected to be Big Red head coach Kenny DeMoss’ final season at the helm, 51-49, Friday night inside PHS Memorial Fieldhouse. “I just knew that there wasn’t a lot of time left, so I just took the shot it and it went in,” said Wilson, after climbing the ladder to cut down her piece of the net. “It was really cool.”

Wilson, who dealt with foul trouble from the second quarter onward, played most of the fourth quarter with three,then four fouls. The freshman finished the game with 11 points, but none were bigger than those from her last bucket.

“We actually drew the play up for Alex (Delozier),” said DeMoss, when asked about the play Wilson scored on. “The ball did come to Alex, then we put it inside and kicked it out or we threw a bad pass to Bre. We practice inside-out shooting all the time, so that shot that Bre made — she has made it a million times.”

Shay-Lee Kirby finished with a team-high 13 points and Madi Mace scored 11 for PHS (18-5). Kirby hit three big shots from downtown and Mace added one as well. Mace grabbed 14 of the Big Reds’ 39 rebounds in the victory.

PHS will now host Spring Valley at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in a Region IV co-final, with the winner advancing to the state tournament at the Civic Center in Charleston.

“It feels really good,” said Delozier. “It is great to beat our rivals, but now we have to bring more intensity against Spring Valley next week. But it is definitely a comfortable feeling knowing we are playing them on our home court.”

Parkersburg jumped out early with a lot of energy. Kirby hit two of her triples in the opening period to pace her squad to a 19-8 advantage. Delozier chipped in a triple and Aleea Crites added four markers.

South head coach Ed Davis and his team threw a wrench in Parkersburg’s sectional championship plans in the second quarter when they switched to a zone defense to try and stifle the PHS offensive attack.

Switching defenses proved a beneficial change of pace as South allowed its rivals just seven points in the period before halftime. PSHS held the Big Reds scoreless for the first 2:15 of the stanza too.

Meanwhile, South’s offense went to work.

Jordan Johnson splashed a triple at the 2:22 mark out of a Patriots timeout to bring her team within one point. Lexi Moore’s duece with 51.5 seconds left completely erased the Big Reds’ double-digit advantage and gave her team a 25-24 lead.

However, Big Red Hannah Carroll had the last say in the half. Her duece with 44 seconds left sent PHS into the lockerroom with a 26-25 lead.

Yet South (17-7), which travels to Huntington for the other Region IV co-final at 7 p.m. Tuesday, didn’t falter.

Davis and company made good adjustments at halftime. The blue and white with a touch of red outpointed its hosts, 17-13, to pull ahead by four after three, 43-39.

PHS returned the single-digit scoring quarter with one of its ow, holding South to six points in the final quarter.

The Patriots had multiple chances to tie the game with 7.9 seconds left. Devin Hefner was forced to put a shot up early and Allie Taylor’s putback attempt teetered on the edge of the rim before it rimmed out and was poked out of bounds as time ran out.

Eager to celebrate, the home team stormed the court only to be pushed back after the refs put three-tenths of a second back on the clock.

Davis drew up one final play but Kirby broke up the inbounds pass as her team exploded off the bench to celebrate the victory.

“We have been working hard every day in practice; you have to get better and better,” said a close-to-tears Kirby. “We played hard and deserved that win. I am so happy … It is so exciting.”

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