Parkersburg South uses 17-0 third-quarter run to beat Musselman

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Parkersburg South pulled away in the second half from No. 8 Musselman on Wednesday night, beating the Applemen 71-49 from the Charleston Civic Center in the Class AAA quarterfinals.

“We played well at the very beginning of the game and then we went through a lull where we didn’t knock a shot down,” said Parkersburg South coach Mike Fallon. “Then all of the sudden we started playing again. Give credit to our kids who came off of the bench too.”

The top seed Parkersburg South (23-3) opened up the game with a 27-17 edge after the first quarter. Musselman, though, closed that gap to just 38-33 at the half with a 16-11 second quarter as Kyle Jackson scored 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting for the Applemen. J.R. Kerr led the Patriots with 12 points in the first half.

After Musselman (15-9) closed Parkersburg South’s lead to 43-40 early in the third, the Patriots closed the quarter on a 17-0 run to take a comfortable 60-40 lead into the fourth quarter.

“All the credit goes to these kids,” Fallon said. “They knocked shots down and played with a lot of intensity. In the spurt when we weren’t scoring, we kind of went flat. But, that’s what we’ve done all year. We’ll go four or five minutes and score two or three points – then all of the sudden we’ll put 25 points up. We had a couple of 35-point quarters this year.”

Parkersburg South forced 24 Musselman turnovers, which helped lead to 26 more shots and 30 points off of those turnovers.

“At the beginning, we jumped on them really hard,” Fallon said. “We smelled blood, but then after we built a lead, we went flat. They started getting layups off of our pressure — once we adjusted that in the second half, it made a world of difference.”

In all, the Patriots closed the game outscoring Musselman 28-9. Kerr led Parkersburg South with 19 points in the win. Garrett Gilkeson added 17 points and Ty Dobson scored 11 as well for the Patriots.

“Defensively, we just had to keep them out of the paint,” Gilkeson said. “They were doing the same thing every time, back-cutting and getting wide-open layups. Once we stopped that, they just went flat.”

Jackson finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the loss for Musselman. For the younger Applemen, it was a significant step for this year’s group to get to Charleston.

“I think this experience is huge — we start a freshman, two sophomores and a junior,” said Musselman coach Derek Basile. “To be in this position is such great experience. The eastern panhandle is a challenge every year. But, sometimes you have to get down here and experience it before you can push forward and get that win in the first round.”

Parkersburg South moves on to face either No. 4 Martinsburg or No. 5 Woodrow Wilson in Friday’s semifinals at 5:30 p.m.

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