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No. 4 Patriots handle No. 9 Knights, 79-67

Parkersburg South’s Caleb Schaffer, left, and Riley Street try to tie up Cabell Midland’s Jackson Fetty during the Patriots’ 79-67 victory Thursday evening inside the Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Riley Street scored the first seven points for Parkersburg South here Thursday night inside the Rod Oldham Athletic Center and the host Patriots never trailed during a 79-67 victory versus Cabell Midland in a battle of ranked Class AAAA programs.

Street finished with 12 points for the No. 4 Patriots of head coach Mike Fallon, who are now winners of eight straight and will carry an 8-1 mark into Saturday’s game at Logan, Ohio.

Dominic Schmidt led all scorers with 24 points and older brother Chandler Schmidt pumped in 22 for the now 4-5 ninth-ranked Knights, who return to action Wednesday at George Washington.

“What I told our kids that was crazy, I didn’t think we played very well and we still put up 80,” admitted Fallon, who watched Cyrus Traugh go for 22 points and a game-high 13 rebounds while Ashton Mooney tossed in 20 counters. “If you look at the shot chart in the first half we missed 12 or 13, you know, two or three feet from the basket. We made some silly mistakes and turned it over a couple times when we don’t normally turn it over.”

Parkersburg South had 11 second-half turnovers and finished with 16 for the game, but the Patriots owned the glass. In fact, PSHS held a 47-28 advantage on the boards, which included 27 caroms in the opening half.

“A nine-day layoff is tough,” added Fallon, who also watched Mooney grab nine boards while Street and Caleb Schaffer pulled down six apiece. “It was good. We needed this. We needed a tight one here and there. The Schmidt kid, Chandler, he’s going to compete and come at you. His brother played unreal tonight. Played really, really well.

“I thought our kids made big plays and we got some big rebounds when we had to. We had one day since last Wednesday where we had everybody at practice. We game planned yesterday without three kids here who were sick. Cabell is tough and they are going to compete.”

Jackson Smith’s trey to close the first quarter allowed the Patriot to take a 23-15 lead. The cushion increased to 13 at 32-19 after a Mooney lay-in. Austin Reeves was able to beat the first-half buzzer to put the Patriots ahead 43-33 at intermission.

The Knights made it a two possession game early in the third, but a Schaffer lay-in pushed the lead back to eight. Chandler Schmidt canned a trifecta at 4:29 of the third to slice the deficit to 51-46, but South scored eight straight points and went back ahead by 13 when Devin Hershberger converted for two of his seven counters.

Leading 62-54 entering the fourth, the Patriots had back-to-back turnovers that led to five straight markers by Dominic Schmidt. However, Street’s 15-foot jumper kickstarted a 9-0 spurt as the Knights couldn’t answer again.

Despite hitting just 4 of 17 from deep, PSHS still shot 50% (32 of 64) from the floor. Cabell Midland misfired on 13 of 15 attempts from downtown and shot 40.7% (24 of 59).

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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