River City Classic: PHS boys come up short vs. Liberty Union

Parkersburg’s Isaac Dailey (30) goes up for a jumper during Friday’s game against Liberty Union at Ban Johnson Arena. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
Liberty Union big man Luke Williams turned out to be just a little too much for the Parkersburg Big Reds Friday night as the Lions came away with a 66-63 victory.
Williams tossed in a game-high 25 points as the Lions claimed the lead midway through the final quarter and held off the Big Reds for the win.
Williams connected on 12 of his 15 shot attempts in the game as the two swapped the lead back and forth many times before the Lions managed to take control late in the game.
Liberty Union led by five at the half and surrendered the lead early in the final quarter before rallying to notch their fourth win of the season against five losses.
Noah Shook also reached double figures for the winners with 10 points while Eli Kocher and Tanner Rose each added eight.

Marietta’s Zaiden Wittekind (20) attacks the basket as Belpre’s AJ Copen (23) defends during Friday’s game at Ban Johnson Arena. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
The Lions shot a spectacular 60 percent from the floor with the high percentage shots taken by Williams under the basket benefiting that number.
The loss was the fourth in a row to begin the season for the Big Reds who will take on Monroe Central tomorrow night at 8:30 in the final game of the Classic.
Isaac Dailey and Chandler Jackson led the way for PHS with 17 points apiece.
Jackson also pulled down six rebounds and came up with four steals in the tough luck loss.
Marietta 59, Belpre 22

Fort Frye’s Aiden Brooks, left, goes up for a shot as Tyler Consolidated’s Cole Lemasters contests during Friday’s game at Ban Johnson Arena. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
Marietta senior Brayden Jones stayed white hot Friday night in the River City Classic as the Tiger senior tossed in 19 points to lead Marietta to a 59-22 rout of the Belpre Golden Eagles at Ban Johnson Arena.
One week after scoring a school record 49 points including hitting 13 shots from behind the arc against Clay Battelle, Jones connected on five more Friday to lead the Tigers to their sixth consecutive win to open the season.
Jones canned three triples in the first quarter alone as the Tigers built a 17-8 lead.
MHS added to their lead in the second period when they out-pointed the Eagles by an 18-7 mark to open up a commanding 20-point lead at the break.
The Tigers opened up the second half with nine consecutive points to stretch their lead to 29 points and cruised the rest of the way.
All told the Tigers connected nine times from long range with Braiden Plaugher, Junior Bass, Zaiden Wittekind and Seth Britton all getting in on the act.
The tenacious Tiger defense allowed the Eagles to convert just eight field goals in the game and kept them from reaching double-figures in any single quarter.
Wittekind chipped in with 12 points and five boards for the winners while Bass added eight points and five rebounds against his former team.
Trey Hawkins added six points while dishing out five assists.
Belpre was led by Nasaih Spencer with 11 points.
The Eagles slipped to 4-4 with the loss while the undefeated Tigers will look to make it seven in a row Saturday night when they take on Wheeling Park at 7 p.m. once again at the Banjo.
Fort Frye 49, Tyler Consolidated 44
Clayton Miller and Kainan Bradford combined for 31 points as the Fort Frye Cadets downed the Tyler Consolidated senior nights Friday night in the middle game of the River City Classic.
Miller poured in a team-high 18 points while Bradford finished with 13.
The Cadets built an early lead only to watch TC rally in the second quarter to trim the lead to six at the break.
Fort Frye built their lead back up to 11 at one point in the third quarter only to allow the Silver Knights to close to within a single point early in the final quarter.
Tyler was never able to pull even or go ahead of the Cadets who did just enough down the stretch at the charity stripe to keep the Knights at bay,
Chatum Courson gave the Cadets a spark off the bench as he tossed in eight points while also pulling down four rebounds.
Fort Frye improves to 3-5 on the season with the win while the loss was the first of the season for the Knights in three games.
Brady Strode led all scorers with 21 for Tyler Consolidated while Cole Lemasters and Brody Giovinazzo added eight and seven points respectively.
Tyler Consolidated will be right back in action on Saturday when they take on Liberty Union while the Cadets will get a bit of a break before hosting Shenandoah next Saturday.