Photo by Jay W. Bennett Parkersburg Catholic’s Pat Copen (24) finishes at the rim during a high school boys basketball game against Tyler Consolidated Thursday.

PARKERSBURG — Peyton Amrine drained a quartet of 3s off the bench, Patrick Copen flirted with a triple-double and Cade Ullman poured in a game-high 35 points here Thursday evening to help lead host Parkersburg Catholic to a 78-54 Little Kanawha Conference West Division victory against Tyler Consolidated.

The Silver Knights of head man Rick Leach, who dropped to 7-3 and play host this evening to Ravenswood, shot better than 52 percent from the field and were led by Tyler West with 13 points and Dylan Roberts with 10.

“The first half we really talked about how we didn’t want to have to match Tyler’s energy level,” said Crusader boss Rob Strcula, who watched Copen tally 18 points and finish with game-highs of 11 rebounds and seven assists while adding a pair of steals. “They’ve been playing pretty well and they were 7-2 for a reason.

“We wanted to make them match our energy level. The second half, the biggest adjustment we made was we had to guard the ball a lot better. We did not defend the ball very well (in the first half) and they got a lot of easy baskets. We did that in the second half.”

Griffin Phillips, who had seven points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals, found Roberts open for a 3 just 61 seconds into the affair as the visitors had their only lead at 3-2. Luke Daugherty’s deuce via a Mark Wilson feed closed out the first quarter scoring as the Silver Knights only trailed 19-15.

Nate Lancaster tallied all three of his deuces in the second quarter and after West hit from downtown, Parkersburg Catholic only led 28-25 with 2:52 left in the half. Amrine, who had 12 points, followed a Copen hoop with a 3 for a 33-25 cushion, but Lancaster then scored consecutive baskets. The final came in the paint thanks to a Mark Rucker feed.

After a steal by Copen, Ullman finished for an easy bucket and the Crusaders, who improved to 5-3 and play host Wednesday to Wirt County, took a 38-29 advantage into the break when Amrine swished in a trifecta from the wing just before the halftime buzzer.

“We were proud of the effort we gave at Ravenswood,” Strcula said of the Crusaders’ last game, a road loss to the Red Devils last Friday.

“For three and a half quarters we were right there. We came off that game, we lost, but we learned a lot from that game.”

PCHS, which shot nearly 54 percent for the game and hit 11 of 25 from 3-point land, opened up a 12-point cushion at 45-33 early in the third after Ty Sturm, who had four points and eight boards, got a putback. Amrine’s 3 to close out the period put the Crusaders ahead 62-45.

Ullman, who had a 30-point effort against Ravenswood, had 20 points in the first half and added a dozen more in the third quarter.

Amrine added his final trey for a 75-51 bulge at 4:08 of the fourth. Crusader Eric Dotson got in the scorebook late when he drained a 3 via an Ethan Long dime.