Catholic wins, honors inaugural team
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PARKERSBURG -- On an emotional day where the Parkersburg Catholic Crusaderettes honored the 50th anniversary of the very first Crusaderette squad, it was appropriate that the team scored 50 in Saturday afternoon's 50-36 victory against Frankfort.
Pre-game festivities saw head coach Marty Vierheller speak of how far the program has evolved in the 50 years since its inception, and Vierheller's group responded in kind.
Specifically, it was Catholic's defense leading the charge. A 9-8 PCHS advantage after one quarter saw three made buckets by the home team, as Jocelynn Thorn and Akhia Miller accounted for the 3-balls in the first frame. That trend continued in the second, as Morgan Sampson and Thorn buried triples to push the PC lead to 15-8 with 6:48 left in the half. However, Frankfort (9-9) didn't go down without a fight. Grace Scott accounted for the majority of the Falcons' points in the second quarter, as her last make on an assist by Avery Noel cut the Catholic lead to 19-16 midway through the quarter. Then, the Crusaderettes got hot and didn't look back.
Mary Tokodi-Ruth got the run started with a 3-pointer assisted by Izzy DeAngelo. Buckets from DeAngelo and Deborah Hardbarger stretched the score to 26-16 at the break. Miller, Tokodi-Ruth and Thorn took control and put Frankfort in a hole it couldn't escape. Eight of Miller's 13 points came in the third, and 3s from Thorn and Tokodi-Ruth further stretched the lead. Following the productive third, the game was on ice. After a day full of remembrance and celebrations, PCHS (11-6) delivered. Thorn led all scorers with 14, and Miller's big second half contributed to 13 points of her own. Also in double-figures was DeAngelo with 10. The Crusaderettes are back in action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday when they travel to South Charleston.
"Today was really special, and I'll be honest with you, I felt it a little bit. I didn't want to let everybody down. I knew our girls wouldn't," Vierheller said. "They came to play, and it was so nice to see the ball go in the basket. We've gone through stretches where the ball doesn't go through the net, and today, it did. We got a bit of momentum, and it fed off of itself. It was just a wonderful day. Fifty points for the 50th anniversary is really cool! I didn't plan it like that. We held (Frankfort) in check, and once we adjusted some things, it was up to the girls to execute. I thought they did, and it helps to shoot well. It feels like we shot much better. We had some good balance. The sky is still the limit for us, but we've battled with consistency all year. If we can become a consistently good team, I think we could be dangerous. It can't just be one day or once in a while. It's got to be all the time, and I was proud of our effort."
It was a long trip for Frankfort. The Falcons traveled 3 1/2 hours from Mineral County to make it in time for the contest, and head coach Steve Willison talked about what needs to ultimately change as a result of the setback.
"We left around 8:30 in the morning, but it wasn't a bad trip though. This was a game we wanted because we played the No. 1 team in the state, Wyoming East," he said. "We played the No. 3 team and No. 8. We're trying to pick our schedule up. We didn't produce anything. If they wouldn't have put the subs in, they would have beat us by 20. We know what we need to fix if we play them again in the state tournament. There's a good shot we'll see this team again. We just have to improve our game if we want to compete when we go to the state tournament this year."
Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com