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Parkersburg rally comes up short, Hurricane hangs on 51-48

PHS sophomore Sophie Lott goes up for a layup while being guarded by Hurricane’s Kylie Bailey (2) Monday night. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

PARKERSBURG – Parkersburg could simply not overcome a poor shooting night in Monday’s showdown at Memorial Field house against the Hurricane Redskins.

The Big Reds struggled to put the ball in the basket all game long and in the end it bit them as the Redskins escaped with a 51-48 win.

“Credit to Hurricane. I thought they did a really good job but we just didn’t shoot the ball well at all tonight,” said PHS head coach Chris Murray, whose team shot just 35 percent in the game including 6-of-25 from behind the arc. “A lot of the shots that we took we typically make and they just didn’t fall tonight.”

Despite the tough night from the perimeter the Big Reds were in it all game long and even after falling behind by eight points with a minute to play came charging back and had a shot to tie the game at the end.

Hurricane built a five-point lead early in the game but once the Big Reds caught up it was like the two were stuck together with glue the rest of the first half as neither team could pull away at all from the other.

Hurricane’s Kenya Kathale (0) and Parkersburg’s Lauren Flanagan (1) lead a whole cluster of players going for a rebound in basketball action Monday night at Memorial Field House. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The Big Reds did manage to pull out to a four-point lead late in the first half on a free throw and then a 3-pointer by Lauren Flanagan but the Lady Redskins finished the half with a free throw by Lauren White and a two-pointer by Kendall Anderson to cut the lead to 24-23 at the break.

Parkersburg made just 8-of-28 shots in the first half including 3-of-12 from behind the arc.

Making matters worse for PHS was the fact that the Redskins were winning the battle of the boards early on by a 20-13 margin at the break.

Parkersburg took great care of the basketball in the first half as it turned it over just once then coughed it up twice in the first 30 seconds of the second half.

Fortunately for the Big Reds, Hurricane was unable to take advantage and Parkersburg actually scored the first bucket of the second half when Frances Guice came up with a steal and cashed in at the other end.

Parkerburg’s Eden DeBoard (14) puts up a shot while being defensed by a Hurricane defender Monday night at Memorial Field House. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Hurricane’s Anderson and Big Red Kennedy Porter traded baskets before the Redskins went on a 9-0 run to take a six-point lead.

A pair of buckets by Brooklyn Jones – both coming on assists from Anderson – proceeded a field goal by White to extend the lead to three for Hurricane.

Alex Anderson then connected from long range once again with an assist from Kendall Anderson to give the Redskins a 34-28 lead.

Kendall Anderson narrowly missed a rare high school triple-double as the Redskins junior guard finished the game with eight points, nine assists and 10 rebounds.

Parkersburg quickly erased that lead on 3-pointer by Flanagan and a two-pointer by Porter before Alex Anderson closed out the quarter with yet another triple to give Hurricane a 37-34 lead.

Porter did not score a single point for the Big Reds in the opening half but she made up for it in a big way in the final quarter as she scored seven points in the first two minutes to give PHS a three-point lead with six minutes to play.

“She did a really good job for us tonight and once she got going she carried us there for awhile,” said Murray of Porter. “We probably should have went to her some more.”

Hurricane tied the game when Kenya Kathale knocked down a 3-pointer and after the Big Reds briefly retook the lead on a free throw by Flanagan, the Redskins reeled off nine consecutive points to open their biggest lead of the game at 51-43 with just over a minute to play.

Kathale’s second triple of the quarter along with back-to-back two-pointers by Kendall Anderson keyed the run for Hurricane.

That might have been all she wrote for most teams but the Big Reds came storming right back starting with a triple from Guice with 50 seconds to play.

Guice then stole the in-bound pass and kicked the ball out to senior Audriana Medina who drew a foul on her shot from behind the arc giving her three free throws.

Medina, who was honored on senior night before the game, made two of the three to cut the lead to three with 19 seconds to play.

Once again the Big Reds were able to come up with a turnover as Sophie Lott stole the ball on the inbound pass only to have her 3-point attempt blocked out of bounds.

The Big Reds retained possession of the ball but Flanagan’s long three-ball was well off the mark and Lott came up with the offensive board as the Big Reds called timeout with 7.7 seconds left on the clock.

On the inbound pass the ball got into the hands of Guice whose 3-point attempt was well short and the Redskins grabbed the rebound as time expired.

It appeared that Guice may have been fouled behind the arc but the referee’s elected not to blow the whistle as time expired.

“We are a resilient group and we’ve been down a bunch before and don’t really get shaken,” said Murray of his team’s comeback bid. “We are pretty quick to bounce back we just couldn’t shoot well enough to get it done.”

In addition to Kendall Anderson’s big game, Hurricane also got a huge night from Jones who completed a double-double with game highs of 16 points and 13 boards.

Kathale scored all but two of her 10 points in the second half while Alex Anderson and Lauren White added nine and eight points, respectively, for the winners.

Porter also finished with a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds while Flanagan and Guice finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Hurricane improved to 14-2 with the win while the Big Reds slipped to 12-4 with a trip Tuesday to Huntington next on their agenda.

“We’ve got to get back to work and go out and win some games,” said Murray. “We’ve just got to get a little better and get a little deeper.”

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