Parkersburg South with new region, new coaching era in 2017

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — One of the top girls basketball programs in the state has been under new leadership in 2016-2017.

Parkersburg South won three Class AAA state basketball championships under head coach Scott Stephens. After the 2016 campaign, Stephens moved on to the college ranks as an assistant to his daughter Kim, the head coach at Glenville State.

It was Ed Davis who took over for Stephens and had the Patriots at 11-3 entering this week.

“Scott (Stephens) was really helpful to me in the five years I was there (as an assistant) and he built such a great program. We’re just trying to keep it going,” Davis said. “We were able to keep pretty much everything in place and that was one thing that I learned from Scott – try to surround yourself with as many good people as you can. We have so many people who help with our program, it’s awesome.”

Parkersburg South lost seven seniors from its 2016 semifinal team, including leading scorers Anna Hayton and Katelyn Byrd. But a few key players still returned, including now-senior Jordan Johnson who averaged seven points per game a season ago.

“Jordan Johnson was our one returning starter and that has been critical,” Davis said. “Lexi Moore has done an outstanding job for us – she played a little bit last year. Devin Hefner had a lot of injuries last year, but still had some experience. Those three had the most experience and then we’ve had some other girls who have stepped into bigger roles this year for us – our bench is mostly younger kids.”

Younger or not, the Patriots’ initial 9-2 start propelled them to the top spot in the first edition of the MetroNews Power Index, powered behind an 82-80 win over preseason Class AAA favorite Huntington. The Highlanders returned the favor last week, beating Parkersburg South 80-56. The Patriots, though, have other key wins over rivals Parkersburg (78-69) and defending state champion Morgantown (46-37).

“We have to pressure people and pressure teams into turnovers, trying to get into transition,” Davis said. “The first game against Huntington, they had us down several times and our kids kept battling back. They never got down when we got behind. We had some key stops at the end of the game defensively to give us some chances in transition.

“The rematch with Huntington, they played really well. They were just flat-out better than us that night and they just beat us,” he continued. “We were still pretty happy with our kids’ effort. We played to the end and hustled. You have to give (Huntington) all of the credit. They’re really good.”

Davis is enjoying watching some of his young players mature as they try to build to some depth for another run at the tournament.

“We’re getting them a little bit more experience,” Davis said. “We want to be able to go deeper on the bench and be able to maintain our defensive intensity. Those are a couple of things that we’re really going to have to focus on down the stretch of the season to advance to where we would like to advance in the end.”

There are some changes to that road for Parkersburg South as re-classification moved the Patriots (and Parkersburg) from Region 1 with Morgantown, University, John Marshall, Wheeling Park, and others, to Region 4, which includes Ripley, Cabell Midland, Huntington, Hurricane and Spring Valley.

“It was going to be equally difficult,” Davis said. “There are going to be at least a couple of really good teams out of our region that aren’t going to make it, which is tough. That’s the way it is, but that’s the way it would have been in the other region, too.”