Parkersburg South players celebrate following Tuesday night's 60-55 upset of previously undefeated George Washington inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Tuesday night’s battle of the Patriots showdown didn’t disappoint as top-five Class AAAA Mountain State Athletic Conference foes George Washington and Parkersburg South battled to the bitter end inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center.

Rick Greene’s No. 1 GW Patriots entered the fray 10-0 and bolted out to a 12-3 cushion only to have the host and fifth-ranked Patriots finally take their first lead to open the fourth quarter and eventually emerge with a 60-55 victory.

“Other than the first four minutes we played as tough as we have physically. That was the thing the last three days of practice we’ve beat the living crap out of each other,” said South head man Mike Fallon of his 9-3 squad, which got a game-high 30 points from Harry Silvis.

“We’ve changed a lot of stuff and did some different things, and our kids have bought into that physicality. We’ll get better offensively. Once we figure out some stuff that will tend to grow but this was huge just from a regional standpoint, for down the road maybe.”

Dominic Sprouse and Noah Lewis, who had game-highs of 10 caroms and three blocks, led GW with 19 points apiece while Kaden Welch scored a baker’s dozen off the bench.

Parkersburg South's Harry Silvis pumped in a game-high 30 points during Tuesday night's 60-55 upset of previously undefeated George Washington inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

The visitors went ahead for the final time with 66 seconds to go when Chuck Kelley got an offensive rebound and kicked it out to Sprouse, who drained his third trifecta for a 54-52 lead, but Silvis answered right back with a 3 of his own 23 ticks later thanks to a Taj Joyce dime.

“He really hit those big shots. He’s a super player,” said coach Greene. “I thought the main difference was we rushed our offense a little bit too much. I thought we took some bad shots and it caught up with us. We haven’t been challenged. The things you have to learn when you’re challenged, we learned tonight.

“South made us make some mistakes that we got away with against some other people that you can’t get away with here. I thought both teams played really hard. It was just a good ballgame. I didn’t like the ending. It was a really good ballgame.”

George Washington, which hit 17 of 25 from the charity stripe compared to South’s 20 of 24 showing, entered the fray with a 26-point average margin of victory.

Sprouse, who had previously hit a trey to give GW a 51-50 cushion, tried for a third straight to answer Silvis, but it was off the mark. Chase Offenberger added a pair of charity stripe tosses with 19.2 to go which made it 57-54, and after a Welch triple to tie it wouldn’t fall, Silvis canned 3 of 4 from the free-throw line to seal the win.

Parkersburg South's Taj Joyce drains a 3 as George Washington's Kaden Welch defends during the host Patriots' 60-55 upset Tuesday night inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“It seems to be a theme here,” Silvis quipped of the slow start. “It was a great one. Definitely more focused tonight. We were definitely more dialed in and I think when we play these better teams everybody has a tendency to really dial in and focus for these types of games because we know on paper they are better than us. They are the one and we’re the five.

“You kind of want to have that underdog mentality when we want to go fight them so that’s when we really show how well we can play and we need to start showing that even more when we play the teams that may not be as shown to be better than us on paper. As for tonight we played great. Defensively, even when they made some big shots and even when we made a mistake we didn’t let it affect the next play.”

Silvis was honored pregame for reaching his 1,000th career point back on Dec. 31, but Lewis scored the opening deuce thanks to a Matthew Mullen assist. Although South’s Matthew Mullen then had a steal and a layup, the hosts soon trailed 12-3.

Even though a three-point play by Silvis cut it to 12-6, Lewis made it 15-8 with just eight seconds left in the quarter when he hit a 3. However, Silvis got the crowd going when he put up a long triple that hit nothing but net just before the horn in front of the southside psychos.

George Washington, which returns to action on Friday when Wheeling Park invades, managed a 29-27 intermission advantage, but didn’t have a lead larger than two possessions until 1:40 was left in the third when Sprouse’s steal and lay-in made it 40-33.

The southside psychos went crazy after Harry Silvis drained a long buzzer-beating 3 to end the first quarter during Parkersburg South's 60-55 upset of previously undefeated George Washington on Tuesday night inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Cam Fallon’s trifecta via a Xavier St. Andry assist had South within a pair at 35-33 at the 2:33 mark as the hosts were still behind 41-40 entering the fourth.

Parkersburg South, which welcomes in rival Parkersburg on Friday, finally took its first lead 18 seconds into the fourth on a Silvis 16-foot baseline jumper.

Kelley added eight rebounds and joined his teammate Mullen with a game-high three assists as GW held a 31-26 rebounding edge on a night South managed just one offensive carom.

The only other scorer for coach Greene’s club was Braydon Browning, who had a quartet of markers.

South also received four points apiece from Mullen, Offenberger, St. Andry, Fallon and Logan Graham. Mullen grabbed six boards while Joyce and Silvis had seven apiece.

Parkersburg South's Matthew Mullen goes in for a layup following a steal during the host Patriots' 60-55 upset of previously undefeated George Washington on Tuesday night inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

Parkersburg South's Chase Offenberger looks to penetrate as George Washington's Chuck Kelley defends during the host Patriots' 60-55 upset victory Tuesday night inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)