CHARLESTON — After a subpar start, George Washington is starting to round into familiar form.

The Patriots took full control in the second quarter Thursday evening, running away with a 74-41 Mountain State Athletic Conference victory against Parkersburg at GW High School.

Christian Goebel popped in 10 of his game-high 16 points in the third quarter for GW (9-3) and he got scoring support from Noah Lewis (13 points) and sub Brady Anderson (11 points, seven rebounds).

It marked the seventh straight victory for the Patriots, who started the season an uncharacteristic 2-3 against a strong schedule.

“It just took longer than I thought it was going to take to mesh,” said GW coach Rick Greene. “And it wasn’t the kids. They were trying from Day 1, from flex days to anything. It just took longer to evaluate and I’m not sure I approached it with them right – second-guessing and all that as a coach should, because it’s my responsibility.

“But coming out of Christmas, we just kind of took a deep breath and regrouped – and those were five pretty good teams we played. So everybody kind of regrouped and nobody panicked. I felt like we could get to where we are and be ever better. I feel very good about how we’re playing. We’re very unselfish.”

GW shot 50% with its starters in the game and finished with nine 3-point field goals, those coming from six different players.

Jackson Clark matched Anderson with a team-best seven rebounds as the Patriots maintained a 35-25 edge off the boards.

Parkersburg (4-9) started the second quarter down just 16-10, but a quick 11-2 burst by GW helped push the lead into double figures for the rest of the game. The advantage grew to 32-16 by halftime. The Patriots emptied the bench for the final 6:41.

Greene, in his 31st season as GW coach, acknowledged that he can still learn some new things about how best to direct his team.

“You try,” he said. “Every kid’s different. You try to play freshmen with kids that are transfers and kids that have been here. Again, it’s not about the effort and attitude of the kids. It was just … you’re trying to say, ‘This is the way we play,’ and so again, it just took a little more time than I thought it would.

“But we’re getting there now, so I’m really happy with how we’ve come out of this.”

The Big Reds have now lost nine straight times to GW, with their last victory in the series coming in 2015. Parkersburg has also been hit by some hard luck under first-year coach Phil Wilson, losing five games by six or fewer points this season.

“They’re a good basketball team,” Wilson said of the Patriots, who are ranked No. 3 in The Associated Press Class AAAA state poll. “Well-coached and have some great shooters. And we’re still in the process of figuring that part of our game out. We knew we’d have games like this coming in our first year. We’re going to hit our lumps.

“We’ve been doing pretty good so far this year. Tonight was just one of those nights where it didn’t all come together, but heads are still high.”

Point guard Nathan Rodriguez led Parkersburg with 14 points and Isaac Dailey nailed three 3s for nine points. Connor Gribble landed five rebounds.

“We played a lot of kids tonight,” Wilson said. “[GW] had a couple bigger bigs, so we had to play some extra kids. Foul trouble didn’t help out much, either. So we had to play

more kids than normal, but I still trust those kids to come in and do what’s needed. We always say next man up.”