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Webster takes LKC crown

Catholic falls in title game

Photo by Jay W. Bennett Webster County's Tyler Gray (1), Cole Taylor (rear) and Drew Holcomb (24) surround Parkersburg Catholic's Cade Ullman on his drive into the paint Saturday in Glenville.

GLENVILLE — Webster County’s defense clamped down on Parkersburg Catholic and the Highlanders’ dream of an undefeated season remained intact following a convincing 58-42 victory against the No. 5 Crusaders late Saturday night in the Little Kanawha Conference championship game at Glenville State’s Waco Center.

“Our defense right now, we’re playing tough. A lot of people haven’t mentioned that to us,” said head coach Mike Gray after his top-ranked Class A Highlanders improved to 21-0.

“They are just a great group of kids. We held a really good opponent to 42 points tonight. Our defense is definitely tough right now.”

Webster County, which captured its first LKC title in school history, now will go for the school’s first undefeated regular season when the Highlanders travel Tuesday to take on Midland Trail.

Parkersburg Catholic had leads of 2-0 and 5-2 early, but a combination of Webster County’s defense and the Crusaders’ inability to take care of the ball proved costly.

The Highlanders basically took control of the game by scoring 15 unanswered points. WCHS turned five Crusader turnovers into 11 points during the spurt.

Tyler Gray, who had 12 points in the victory, canned a triple with nine seconds to go to give the Highlanders a 20-7 lead and teammate Drew Holcomb protected the 13-point margin when he stuffed Jeb Boice’s driving lay-in attempt at the buzzer. Webster blocked seven shots on the night. A trio came from Cole Taylor, who also added nine markers, a team-high six rebounds as well as a game-high four steals.

Back-to-back 3s by Dorian Groggs, who led all scorers with 22, had the Highlander faithful going crazy as the lead increased to 26-9 with 4:27 to go before intermission.

Head coach Rob Strcula’s program couldn’t get anything going from the floor. Patrick Copen had four of his 13 counters in the second, but Groggs canned another trifecta to make it 30-11. Despite two foul shots from Ty Sturm, PCHS (14-6) still trailed 30-13 at halftime.

Despite Webster County getting into some foul trouble, the Crusaders couldn’t get going on the offensive end. Two charity stripe tosses by Wade Smitley and a Copen lay-in from a Boice assist only cut the deficit to 15 at 35-20 late in the third.

WCHS held a 37-20 lead entering the fourth and limited PCHS to less than 26 percent shooting overall (13 of 51).

Cade Ullman tallied 13 of his team-high 18 in the fourth quarter for PCHS, which plays Tuesday at Winfield.

Crusader fans definitely knew it wasn’t going to be their night when Groggs banked in a 3 just left of the top of the key for a 44-22 bulge at 5:34 of the fourth.

Holcomb had a late dunk to punctuate the victory, but failed to convert the three-point play.

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