Parkersburg’s Nate Rodriguez, who had 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists, drives between Hurricane’s Eli Samples (13) and Jo Jo Green (5) during the Big Reds’ 77-75 setback Friday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG – Hurricane sophomore Carson O’Dell knocked down seven 3s and pumped in a career-high 35 points here Friday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse to help lead the Redskins past Parkersburg, 77-75, in a Mountain State Athletic Conference clash.

The Big Reds of first-year head coach Phil Wilson, who dropped to 2-6 and play tonight at Wheeling Park, led 15-14 after one thanks to an Isaac Dailey buzzer-beating floating kiss off the glass.

A Weston Smith deuce gave the Redskins of head man Lance Sutherland, who improved to 6-4 with a home game Tuesday up next versus St. Albans, a 35-34 cushion at intermission.

Sha’lik Hampton, who went for 12 points, nine boards, four assists and two blocks, opened the second half with a putback.

Although three straight points from Matthew Stalnaker closed the deficit to 40-39, Hurricane ended the quarter on a 13-4 run. Brayden Whittington’s trey with 1:26 left in the stanza capped the scoring as PHS fell behind 53-43.

Parkersburg’s Quentin Wilson goes in for two of his 14 points during the Big Reds’ 77-75 setback Friday night against Hurricane. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PHS point guard Nate Rodriguez, who scored 16 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, tried to help lead a comeback.

The red and white still trailed by 11 at 60-49 with 5:48 remaining when Isaiah Walker found Stalnaker for a deuce. Rodriguez, who tied Hampton for game-high rebounding honors with nine while dishing out a game-high six assists, scored 10 straight at one point as PHS closed to within six at 70-64 with 90 seconds to go.

Quentin Wilson, who joined Dailey with 14 counters, kept it a six-point deficit after he canned two charity stripe tosses with 1:04 left on the clock. Although Rodriguez scored four more points and Dailey hit a 3 to make it 77-73, the Big Reds ran out of time and had their two-game winning streak snapped. PHS forced a late turnover as Andrew Stalnaker, who had eight boards and two blocks, assisted on one final Rodriguez make.

“Give me 30 more seconds and there’s no telling what would happen,” quipped coach Wilson, whose team ended up winning both the turnover battle (17-13) and the rebounding battle (36-29), but allowed several putbacks.

“My thing is we are going to fight every game out until all four zeroes are on the clock. They will not quit and I’m not going to let them quit. I’m going to make it where it’s part of their system that they never quit anything.”

Despite the Big Reds’ best effort, Hurricane was able to seal the game at the foul line. The Redskins, who got 12 points and two steals from Jo Jo Green, knocked down 13 of 17 in the fourth and went 22 of 31 for the game. PHS converted 12 of 17.

In an affair which featured a trio of technicals, the two teams combined to miss all dozen of their 3-point attempts in the first quarter with PHS misfiring on seven. However, they combined to go 8 of 12 in the second with the Redskins going 5 of 8.

“He shot lights out. He did his part,” coach Wilson said of O’Dell. “My biggest thing is we didn’t rebound very well. We had to hit the boards and we knew that coming into it. Those boys are tall and athletic and they are strong. I mean so we had to bring the boards in order to win the game and I just thought they did a really good job on the boards.

“We could’ve done better on the boards. It’s not that we did bad. We could’ve just done better, but again, as long as these kids come out here and fight and compete week after week and game after game that’s the most important part is that. They can’t get to the part in their mind where they are saying it’s over.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com