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PARKERSBURG -- A Jeff Tucker lay-in and two foul shots by Brendan Plants capped the scoring on senior night here Friday inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center as No. 10 Parkersburg South blitzed Linsly, 64-37.
Alex Woolard, who flushed a two-handed dunk at 3:22 of the second for a 23-15 cushion, finished with game-highs of 17 points and nine rebounds to help lead the Patriots, who are 14-6 and have won five straight.
First-year PSHS head coach Brett Rector admitted "I wanted to start them all," but Tucker, Plants and Woolard also got plenty of help from the starting senior five of Malaki Sylvia, Cam Marks, Dylan Day, Nathan Currey and Zach Seese.
The hosts bolted to a quick 7-0 lead as Sylvia, who had 16 points, eight caroms, four assists and two blocks, scored twice inside while Day hit from deep. Seese's free throw and then a runner at the buzzer off the glass by Jake Hogsett, who scored nine points, put Linsly in a 12-4 hole after one. Hogsett was afforded the opportunity when Ashton Mooney had an offensive tip-out rebound.
Linsly, which was led by Marshall Taylor's 13 points, got a 3 from Caleb Murray thanks to one of JY'Leik Johnson's five assists to make it 30-24 at intermission.
After going 2 of 8 from the field in the first quarter, head coach Dave Wojcik's 16-8 Cadets went 1 of 11 in the third and trailed 45-27.
"I was all over them at the half because we gave up 24 points," said Rector, who got 13 points from Day, six boards by Currey and five dimes from Marks. "We started well, it was 9-2 and our energy was good then it was almost like, hey, it's going to be easy. The third quarter it was 15-3, which that was really good. We dialed back in and kind of found it.
"Like I told the guys, next week really starts tournament time because you've got (No. 7) GW (George Washington at home Tuesday) and (No. 8) Beckley (on the road Thursday) and those are teams you could see at Charleston here in a couple weeks so we better be ready to go."
Murray canned his third trifecta of the game at 3:38 of the third to cut the deficit to 35-27, but Currey answered with a corner 3 of his own just 20 seconds later, which started a quarter-ending 10-0 run. After Marks hit a free throw, Woolard converted a putback and then drained a 3 before a Sylvia charity stripe make.
Dorde Donovic, who had seven points and a team-high four rebounds, hit from deep thanks to a Luca Dilorenzo dish to open the fourth, but Day followed with a 3, Woolard scored inside and then Woolard bombed in another trifecta to push the advantage to 53-30.
"My first year as a head coach, I'll remember these guys forever," added Rector, who watched his squad shoot 53.2% (25 of 47) while the Cadets went 16 of 43 (37.2%).
"They've been so good because anytime you get a new coach it's going to be different and they've bought in to what I've asked them to do and they are just great kids."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com