PARKERSBURG — Coming off two statement wins against a No. 1 ranked George Washington team and 18th-ranked Huntington, the Parkersburg girls basketball team built upon their eventful week of winning with a 63-46 win against Geneva, Ohio’s SPIRE Academy on Senior Night Tuesday.

After a charming and heartfelt tribute to the Big Reds’ senior girls, Parkersburg would win the tipoff to give senior Lauren Flanagan a chance to score a 3-pointer that would be followed up by a layup for another two, starting the low-scoring first quarter between both teams.

Flanagan’s five points would be the only points scored by both teams for the first three minutes of the game before SPIRE’s Ella Broderick would score her team’s first points of 46 with a contested 3-pointer, eventually ending the quarter with a score of 15-11 and giving both teams a taste of the defensive brawl that would play out through the following quarters.

“We played with a lot of energy tonight as the game went on, and I’m really proud of my girls for sticking to it,” said Parkersburg head coach Chris Murray. “I told them in our previous games and this one that we’ve got to keep up the momentum and we’ve got to keep pushing forward, even if things seem slow.”

The Big Reds would turn over the ball at the start of the second quarter but would be quickly given the ball back after a 20-second sequence by SPIRE which included three straight misses and a turnover to end things and give Parkersburg’s Frances Guice the chance for a 3-pointer, a sequence that spoke to SPIRE’s abundance of misses throughout the night and their nine in the second quarter.

As halftime neared, the Big Reds would capitalize on their opponent’s misdoings and bring the score to 30-18 at the break, only allowing seven total points from SPIRE that came to fruition from two blocked shots by Parkersburg’s Lucie Cline and two SPIRE misses in the last 20 seconds of the quarter.

“I feel like we were moving the ball extremely well tonight, but we also were always where we needed to be on defense and I really commend the girls for that tonight,” said Murray.

Parkersburg would come out of the half with fire in their hearts as a pinpoint pass from Cline to Parkersburg’s Eden DeBord for two, immediately followed by a steal by star senior Kennedy Porter to give the Bigs Reds another two, a sequence that would be followed by a five minute back and forth struggle between both teams to end the third quarter 57-28, a score representative of the chemistry demonstrated by the Big Reds on both offense and defense.

The fourth quarter would be a more eventful outing for SPIRE with an 18-point total that strayed away from the low scoring shown in the previous quarters as the Big Reds stuck to holding onto the lead throughout the fourth, only scoring six points from a Lauren Flanagan 3-pointer and a Flanagan layup, followed by a free-throw by Kennedy Porter.

“I’m really proud of these senior girls and this team,” said Murray, whose senior class includes Flanagan, Cline, Porter, DeBord, Kenslee Lemasters, Gracie Lively and Lillianna Martinez. “With the work that they do every night I feel like I’m in debt to these players for the success they have brought both me and this school.”

Flanagan led PHS with 21 points. Porter (13), Guice (12) and Faithlyn Butcher (11) all scored in double figures as well while Cline chipped in eight.

The Big Reds will hope to build upon their already uplifting momentum as they host Wheeling Park Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

“We’ve played a good schedule so far, and we feel that in order to be the best we have to go play the best, so stick around and keep coming because failure is not an option for us.