Parkersburg's Noah Smith attempts to dribble past Capital's JuJu Chandler during the Big Reds' 68-48 Mountain State Athletic Conference setback on Tuesday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Capital’s 12-2 edge in the opening quarter here Tuesday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse proved to be the difference as Parkersburg fell 68-48 to the top-ranked Class AAA Cougars of head coach Cookie Miller during a Mountain State Athletic Conference affair.

Big Red Chandler Jackson finished with game-highs of 26 points and 11 rebounds and also recorded six steals along with Cougar Shaudy Williams, but every time the hosts made a run, Capital had an answer.

Coach Miller’s squad, which improved to 7-1 and plays Thursday at Warrensville Heights (Ohio), only allowed a Quinten Wilson floater at 4:10 of the first as the Cougars scored the initial six points and the final half dozen of the stanza.

Trey Tyson led the visitors with 14 points. Williams, who also had a trio of assists, scored 11 points while JoJo Greene added a dozen and Camdyn Harris came off the bench to provide 10 markers.

“Capital’s done a good job,” said PHS head coach Phil Wilson. “I mean they had a few transfers come in that really helped them out. I believe they had seven total so you get seven total transfers that’s going to come in, that’s really going to turn your program around. We knew they were playing about 10, 11 kids deep. When you play 10, 11 kids deep you got to try and match it in some way. We tried to do our best. I thought we did halfway decent.

Parkersburg's Chandler Jackson (2) and Karson Kimes (4) attempt to trap Capital's DJ Spencer during the Big Reds' 68-48 Mountain State Athletic Conference setback on Tuesday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“One thing I won’t do is take away the effort that these boys played with tonight because they played hard the entire night. The score doesn’t reflect it, but that game was a 10-point game for most of the time that we were in it. We just didn’t do a lot of the things down the stretch. I think our legs got the best of it. We got tired trying to pressure them up a little bit because we knew they didn’t like a whole lot of pressure. We knew we had to pressure more in the second half.”

Following the deuce by Wilson in the first, Williams and Kahsi Morgan drained 3s to give the Cougars the 10-point cushion. The final trifecta came after DJ Spencer grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked it out.

Buckets by Wilson and Noah Smith and then a personal 7-0 run from Jackson closed the gap to 16-13 with 3:29 left in the half, but the Cougars proceeded to score 10 straight. Tyson had a trio of hoops, JuJu Chandler converted a foul shot and Williams hit from beyond the arc. PHS got a triple from Jackson thanks to a Karson Gooch dime with five seconds left to even the quarter scoring at 14, but the hosts still trailed by 10 at intermission.

Zamyar Walker’s assist on a Chandler 3 with 2:55 remaining in the third had the Big Reds within eight at 36-28, but Capital ended the quarter on a 13-3 spurt to take an 18-point advantage into the fourth. The Cougars’ run featured a 3 apiece from Greene and Morgan, hoops by Duece Thomas and Greene as well as a three-point play by Harris, who grabbed a team-high six caroms.

Although Jaxon Thomas opened the fourth with a spinning lay-in that ignited an 11-2 run to make it 52-42 with 5:35 to play, the Big Reds couldn’t get any closer. Harris and Cam Bulger each converted a three-point play in the fourth.

Parkersburg's Quinten Wilson is pressured by Capital's Shaudy Williams during the Big Reds' 68-48 Mountain State Athletic Conference setback on Tuesday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“Capital does a good job of making the shots when they need to make those shots,” added coach Wilson, whose 2-4 squad returns to action on Thursday night when Nitro invades in a contest that was originally scheduled for late February.

“Whenever we come creeping at that door and they turn around and hit a 3. When you need to get those stops, we just weren’t able to get those stops and that’s just us again trying to pressure the ball more and they did a good job of swinging the ball and finding the open shooter. They did what they were supposed to do.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com