Parkersburg Christian’s Wyatt Meadows, right, goes up for a jumper during a high school basketball game against Teays Valley Christian Friday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Alex Starcher’s dunk early in the first quarter was a sign of things to come for visiting Teays Valley Christian here Friday night as the Lions roared to a 77-31 victory at Parkersburg Christian.

The Knights of head coach Bimbo Meadows, who trailed 19-9 after the opening quarter, were playing their first game, while the Lions of head man Steve Shockey lost their home opener in a double-overtime affair to rival Calvary Baptist.

Starcher led all point-producers with 15 and was joined in double figures by teammates Marc Desper (14), Isaiah Turner (10) and Kahsi Morgan (10).

“That is a very talented team that’s going to win a lot of games and send some to play at the next level,” admitted coach Meadows, who got nine points from Wyatt Meadows, seven apiece from Joe Johnson and Ashton Peeples, while Alex Fluharty chipped in four counters and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds.

“I told the boys before the game that we’ll not judge by what the scoreboard says, but the effort we play with and I thought the effort was there for the most part, but we gotta work on the execution. They have a very talented team.”

Parkersburg Christian's Jordan Speece (14) contests the shot of Teays Valley Christian's Jayden Castillo (4) during Friday's game. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Following Starcher’s flush, which made it 6-0, the hosts drew within five at 10-5 thanks to a floater in the lane from Meadows, a deuce by Johnson and a free throw from Meadows.

However, Steve Shockey’s squad finished the quarter on a 9-4 spurt that was capped by a putback from Desper, who drained a quartet of 3s.

The Lions opened up the second quarter on a 10-1 spurt thanks to three field goals from Starcher and a pair by Eli Pendleton, who joined Fluharty and his own teammate Ben Lewis with a game-high three steals.

Parkersburg Christian, which plays host Tuesday evening to Ignite Christian, found itself trailing 42-15 at intermission.

The Knights couldn’t make up any ground in the third quarter as the hosts missed 10 of 11 from the field, including all eight attempts from downtown as the Lions forced seven turnovers.

Johnson finally got PC on the board with a lay-in at 3:53 of the third, but the Lions had already built a commanding 52-17 advantage.

A Desper trifecta along with two deuces by Turner and a bucket by Jayden Castillo allowed the visitors to close on a 9-0 run.

“That was a fun game,” said coach Shockey, who received seven caroms apiece from Turner and Jones while shooting 41.7% (30 of 72) compared to the Knights’ 24% (12 of 50). “It was a good bounceback game for our guys. Gained their confidence and we got a lot of the younger guys in too.

“We had a lot of freshmen that got in tonight and got some varsity experience and hopefully that’ll carry us forward going throughout the season. We go 10 deep and we like to pressure. I’d like to see some more shots fall, but at the same time I was really happy with our defense tonight.”

Teays Valley Christian now has some time off before Parkersburg Christian invades for a 4 p.m. game next Monday.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com