Calhoun County's Cooper Morris challenges the shot of Parkersburg Catholic's Luke Anderson during the Crusaders' 100-44 Little Kanawha Conference victory Friday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG – No. 9 Class A Parkersburg Catholic breezed to its third straight win to open the season here Friday night as the Crusaders amassed 48 bench points en route to a 100-44 Little Kanawha Conference victory versus Calhoun County.

Third-year head coach Jim McLean’s squad, which has a makeup game Monday at Webster County, was led in scoring by Jayden Walker’s 16 points.

Also coming off the bench, Andrew Francisco stuffed the stat sheet with seven points and eight rebounds to go along with game-highs of 10 assists and six steals.

Preston Randolph’s 3 for part of his 11 counters opened the scoring and put the hosts ahead for good as a putback by Branson Lott and then a Lott lay-in via a Leonardo DeAngelo dime made it 7-0 early.

A triple by Cooper Morris and then a Morris deuce from a Micah Allen assist kept the Red Devils within four at 9-5 midway through the first, but Carter Nelson drained a trifecta for part of his 14 markers to ignite a quarter-ended 17-6 spurt.

Calhoun County's Trevor Mayle looks to pass while being guarded by Parkersburg Catholic's Leonardo DeAngelo during the Crusaders' 100-44 Little Kanawha Conference victory Friday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

The 1-3 Red Devils of first year head coach Kevin Boak, who play host next Friday to St. Marys, trailed 18-8 after Trevor Mayle connected from downtown. Consecutive deuces by Nelson, both coming via Francisco assists, made it 26-10 and the visitors were still doubled up after Charter Cottrell’s 3 via a Chase Schoolcraft dish beat the horn by a second.

Luke Anderson, who tied Francisco for game-high rebounding honors while registering a quartet of steals, opened the second with PC’s first three field goals en route to scoring eight points.

The hosts started the quarter on a 13-3 spurt before coach Boak had to call timeout. Randolph, who grabbed seven boards, followed Anderson’s three makes with a lay-in to put the Red Devils down 20 for the first time at 34-14.

Following a DeAngelo (10 points) bucket, five more points from Nelson and a Zane Kirk triple it was 44-16 with 3:42 left in the half.

Although the Red Devils got a trey from Sawyer Groves, who came off the bench to notch a team-high eight markers, PCHS tallied eight of the last nine points to forge a 52-20 intermission advantage. Walker had a three-point play and also connected from downtown while Kirk got the last hoop via an Evan Murphy assist.

Calhoun County's Trevor Mayle sets a screen for teammate Chase Schoolcraft as Parkersburg Catholic's Carter Nelson defends during the Crusaders' 100-44 Little Kanawha Conference victory Friday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

The Crusaders, who hit 5 of 10 from distance in the first half before draining 8 of 16 after the break, shot 53.8% (42 of 78) for the game.

“I’ll be honest. I’m not really happy with the way we’ve played so far. I know the score doesn’t reflect that, but we missed a lot of layups in Elizabeth against Wirt and we missed a lot of layups tonight, and missed foul shots at both places,” said McLean, whose club converted just 3 of 10 from the free-throw line.

“At some point it’s going to catch up to us, period. We have to really get a focus on our fundamentals. The good part is we’re sharing the ball well. We are caring more about team than we are individual statistics, but we’ve got to get a grip with finishing layups, finishing foul shots and have them play fundamental shell defense.”

After putting up 26 points in each of the first two quarters, the Crusaders exploded for a 34-point third on 15 of 22 shooting, which included going 4 of 7 from beyond the arc, to forge a commanding 86-34 advantage entering the fourth.

PCHS freshman Jeremiah Lewis scored all eight of his counters in the fourth, which included a pair of trifectas.

Parkersburg Catholic's Andrew Francisco, who came off the bench to score seven points, grab eight boards and dish out a game-high 10 assists, collects one of his game-high six steals during the Crusaders' 100-44 Little Kanawha Conference victory versus Calhoun County on Friday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Andrew Withrow also connected from deep in the fourth as the Crusaders hit the century mark with 4:02 remaining when Ian Haid swished one in from downtown via a Carson Logston assist.

“The good news is this year we have a deeper team so it allows us to practice more competitively and that’s helping us out,” added coach McLean, whose team held a 27-9 advantage on turnovers and a 45-30 edge on the glass.

“However, we have Warren and Frontier coming up and the missed opportunities at the rim and the foul line are going to catch up to us if we don’t lock in.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com