Hedgesville climbs into semis over hot-shooting Parkersburg South

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — No. 3 Hedgesville overcame fantastic shooting by Parkersburg South to claim a 54-49 win in the Class AAA quarterfinals on Thursday night.

The Eagles (19-5) advanced to face Hurricane in the state semifinals on Friday thanks to a game-high 25 points from C.J. Burks.

Hedgesville needed Burks’ big game to counter Parkersburg South (19-7), which shot 58 percent overall and 93 percent in the first half.

Despite that incredible shooting, the sixth-seeded Patriots led only 32-25 at the half.

“We said at half were doing fine, but they were just shooting tremendously,” Hedgesville coach Kelly Church said. ”I don’t think it was because we didn’t guard them, it was we didn’t guard them enough.”

Hedgesville answered with a 9-0 run to open the third quarter and then moved into a deliberate pace due to Burks being on the bench with three fouls. On one possession the Eagles held the ball for 50 seconds before converting a layup.

“I think there was a key point in the game when C.J. was on the bench and we got three defensive stops,” Church said. “That says a heck of a lot about our other kids.”

Burks returned to cap a 9-of-13 shooting performance.

“The Burks kid is a player. He and (George Washington’s) Jon Elmore might be the best kids we’ve seen all year,” said Parkersburg South coach Mike Fallon.

Hedgesville, which got 11 points from Daniel Delaware, made just enough free throws by going 9-of-18 in the final three minutes to preserve the win.

“I just wanted to control the tempo of the game and it worked out great,” Delaware said.

Parkersburg South was paced by J.R. Kerr and Garrett Gilkeson, who each had 10 points. Cody Monroe added nine and Logan Lawrentz scored eight.

“I thought we played well there in the third quarter, and then just hit a lull in the third quarter,” Fallon said. “We felt we had a chance to win this thing.”







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