Parkersburg's Gracie Lively pressures Wheeling Park's Karringtyn Miller during the Big Reds' 60-25 victory Thursday evening inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — It was a doubleheader split here Thursday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse for Parkersburg as the Big Red girls handled Wheeling Park, 60-25, before the boys suffered a 41-36 setback in the Mountain State Athletic Conference ninth-place game against St. Albans.

Wheeling Park’s Italy Schroeder gave the visitors their only lead when she opened the affair 13 seconds in with a trifecta, but the Big Reds led 20-8 after one and 33-12 at halftime as the No. 5 team in quad-A improved to 15-5 and is set to take on George Washington at 6 p.m. Saturday inside the South Charleston Community Center in the MSAC championship game.

“Defensively a good game for us,” admitted Big Red head man Chris Murray, who got game-highs of 18 points and 11 rebounds from Kennedy Porter along with double-figure scoring efforts by Lucie Cline (11) and Frances Guice (10).

“Thought our intensity hasn’t wavered. We continue to strive to get better. It’s a great group of girls who are moving and sharing the basketball well. Just need to keep working toward our goals toward the end of the season.”

The Patriots, who made two of their first five 3s but missed their final 18, only trailed 7-6 at 5:33 of the first when Leah Young hit from deep.

Parkersburg's Frances Guice hits a floater in the lane during the Big Reds' 60-25 victory against Wheeling Park on Thursday evening inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

However, Faithlyn Butcher then assisted on a Cline triple to ignite a quarter-ending 13-2 run. Porter added two buckets before Lauren Flanagan and Kenslee Lemasters finished the quarter with a trifecta apiece.

Parkersburg opened the second with a 13-0 run that included a pair of charity stripe tosses from Eden DeBord, who helped the Big Reds to a 42-37 rebound advantage as she pulled down seven with Cline grabbing nine.

WPHS, now 3-17 with a home game Monday against Parkersburg South, trailed by 21 at the break as Adriana Moses and Schroeder had the final two field goals of the period.

The Big Reds led 42-19 late in the third following a WPHS putback by Karringtyn Miller, but four points from Gracie Lively and a Lemasters trifecta had the Patriots down 30 going to the fourth.

Lemasters and Lively were joined in scoring six points by Moses and teammate Layla Pettit. Brielle Wells had a team-high seven caroms in the setback.

Parkersburg's Sutton Stanley is guarded by St. Albans' Chance Campbell during the Big Reds' 41-36 Mountain State Athletic Conference setback for ninth place on Thursday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse.

Cline added a game-high four assists as the PHS defense limited the Patriots to 20% (10 of 50) from the field.

The Parkersburg boys of head coach Phil Wilson looked like they were in good shape to snap a five-game losing streak as the hosts led 36-31 at 4:49 of the fourth after Sutton Stanley found Quinten Wilson open for a triple, but the red and white missed their final four shots and had four of their nine turnovers in the fourth.

Brogan Samms, who scored eight of his game-high 20 points in the first to help the Red Dragons to a 14-12 cushion after one, tallied 10 straight in the fourth, which included what proved to be the game-winning lay-in with 56 seconds to go.

Teammate Gabe Roblee iced the win by draining a pair of foul shots with 6.3 remaining after the 5-15 Big Reds turned the ball over while inbounding it in the backcourt with eight seconds left on the clock.

“Tonight, I’m happy because this is the first night we’ve actually moved the ball and shared the ball, and they look for each other,” said coach Wilson. “The score was low, but I’m good with that because the shots that we missed we don’t normally miss. We were missing a whole lot of bunnies, a couple 5-footers and you put those in we’re up on the game again.

St. Albans' Brogan Samms, who scored a game-high 20 points during the Red Dragons' 41-36 Mountain State Athletic Conference ninth-place victory Thursday night inside Memorial Fieldhouse, gets past the double team of Parkersburg's Quinten Wilson and Jaxon Thomas en route to what proved to be the go-ahead lay-in with 56 seconds remaining in the game.

“Right now, we are rebuilding better. We got to get ready for the end so if you got to take a game like that and a loss like that in order to get ready and try to win later on, then it is what it is. I don’t ever question these kids’ heart. I don’t question anything they do. Our record is what our record is, but we were looking at it today and nine of our losses have been against top 10 teams in 3A and 4A. Our schedule is just brutal.”

PHS, which heads Tuesday to Wheeling Park, trailed 22-17 at intermission after Chandler Jackson, who had 13 points and six caroms, closed the second out with a pair of charity stripe conversions.

Quinten Wilson opened the second half with a 3 for part of his team-high 15 markers, but the Red Dragons (9-11) responded with hoops from Chance Campbell, Garrett Samples and Zavion Claire to push their advantage to eight.

A Mathias Williams three-point play followed as the Big Reds trimmed it to 29-28 entering the fourth following another Williams foul shot and buckets by Wilson and Jackson.

Parkersburg was able to take the 36-31 advantage thanks to two treys from Wilson and a Stanley hoop.

St. Albans, which shot 53.3% (16 of 30) compared to the Big Reds’ 36.1% (13 of 36), got a game-high eight rebounds from Brayden Smith. The Red Dragons will look to start a winning streak when they entertain Teays Valley Christian on Tuesday.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com