Wheeling Park’s Sophie Abraham and Parkersburg South’s Lucie Cline fight for possession during the visiting Patriots’ 72-48 victory Saturday afternoon inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Wheeling Park had four players crack double figures, led by Alexis Bordas’ game-high 24 points, Saturday afternoon during a 72-48 victory against Parkersburg South.

The top-ranked Class AAAA program of head coach Ryan Young only led 30-28 at intermission, but doubled up the host Patriots 26-13 during the third quarter inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center.

No. 7 Parkersburg South, which slipped to 5-5 and plays host on Tuesday to Waterford, managed to recover from a 15-7 deficit after one. Park collected 11 offensive rebounds and forced five turnovers.

Sophie Abraham, who had 13 points and four assists, had a pair of lay-ins to open the affair as the 11-1 Patriots never trailed. South didn’t get on the board until the 6:29 mark when Carrie Rhodes, who had eight points, found Emilee Owens open and she scored two of her seven counters.

Lala Woods followed with a 3 and after Bordas drained the first of her five trifectas, the hosts trailed 10-4.

Gracie Shamblin, who had a team-high 11 markers in the setback, converted a three-point play to make it 10-7 with 4:51 left in the quarter, but PSHS missed its final seven shots.

Down 17-11, South caught a break on a mixup with a jump ball. That allowed Shamblin to find Rhodes for a deuce to cut the deficit to 17-13. A Shamblin triple and two Lucie Cline foul shots pulled South within one at 19-18, but head coach Ed Davis’ squad didn’t get any closer.

A triple by Natalie Daugherty, who had six points, four assists and a game-high five steals, put Park ahead 27-21. South was able to cut it to two at intermission when Brooke Sandy’s top of the key 3 attempt bounced on the front of the rim and then dropped through.

Parkersburg South’s defensive rebounding woes continued out of intermission. WP’s Seneca Heller, who had six points and a game-high nine rebounds, grabbed two offensive caroms to open the third. That eventually led to Abraham finding Bordas for a 3, which ignited a game-changing 11-0 spurt.

A steal by Daugherty followed and that led to a Bordas deuce. Baskets by Abraham, Bordas and a spinning lay-in by Woods, who had 10 markers, capped the run. PSHS was unable to get the deficit back to single digits the rest of the way.

“I felt we did a pretty good job after the first few minutes of handling the pressure,” admitted coach Davis, who got 10 points from Cline along with 10 counters and six rebounds by Sandy. “We got into a little bit of foul trouble. They can put a lot of points in a short period of time and we just never quite recovered from that. Give them credit. We gave some shots up, but they hit some difficult shots in that stretch when they built the lead up, too.

“They make those shots and sometimes that’s the way it goes, but they can make those against anybody and everybody, and they have. It doesn’t get any easier for us. It’s a tough stretch. The goals are all still there and we’re not even halfway through the season. It’s tough going through this stretch. It’s tough for them.”

Jillian Huffman produced 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals off the bench for coach Young.

Carley Schaffer had a game-high five assists and Shyanne Hays swatted a game-high four shots in the setback.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com