Parkersburg wins first girls basketball title since 1996

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Parkersburg won its first Class AAA girls basketball state championship since 1996 on Saturday night, edging No. 1 Buckhannon-Upshur 49-47 from the Charleston Civic Center.

“It means a lot to the school and community,” said Big Reds’ coach Scott Cozzens. “I don’t want to say we’ve had some hard times, we’ve still had some good teams and other sports have won some state championships.

“But this is now a couple of titles for the girls this year to go along with swimming. There are a lot of good things going on at PHS right now.”

Buckhannon-Upshur scored 29 points off of 34 Parkersburg turnovers, but the Big Reds (22-6) were able to overcome that with their shooting and rebounding advantage.

“I don’t know that anyone has turned it over 34 times and won,” Cozzens said. “The makeup of this team is to never quit, find a way, hang around and see what happens at the end.

“We were down without Breanna (Wilson), kind of our floor leader. I knew someone was going to step-up, they have all year. I believe Aleea Crites saved her best game for the biggest stage. She hit some critical baskets for us.”

Madi Mace scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Parkersburg on Saturday night.

Parkersburg went 8-of-11 from the floor in the fourth quarter and held off a furious Buckhannon rally in the game’s final 45 seconds.

Shaylee Kirby hit the two game-winning free throws with just eight seconds to go for the Big Reds.

“I was thinking if I missed them that we had better play good defense and get a stop,” Kirby said. “If these go in, we win a championship – they went in and it’s the best feeling in the world.”

Kirby was fouled taking the ball up the court after Buckhannon’s Ashton Maxwell hit two pressure free throws herself on the other end to tie the game at 47-47. That capped off a 7-0 run in 37 seconds for the Bucs which erased a 47-40 deficit and under a minute to go.

“The game plan was to do what we do,” said Parkersburg standout Madi Mace. “I knew that (Buckhannon-Upshur) was going to come out here somewhat cocky because the last time they played us, they beat us by 30 – they killed us.”

Mace led Parkersburg with 14 points and 13 rebounds in the win. Kirby finished with 12 points, while Crites totaled 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Big Reds as well.

Buckhannon-Upshur scored 29 points off of 34 Parkersburg turnovers, but the Big Reds were able to overcome that with their shooting and 42-32 rebounding advantage.

Still, Buckhannon took 66 shots to Parkersburg’s 43, but shot only 26 percent from the floor.

Buckhannon’s Hanna McClung had an opportunity in the game’s closing seconds to tie the game up, driving into the lane and creating contact – but the shot was off.

“It’s going to hurt for now, this group has done some special things,” said Buckhannon-Upshur coach Jeremy Maxwell. “We were trying to draw a foul (on the last play), kind of like what they did on us the play before, but we didn’t get the call. We’re thankful to be here and God is still good no matter what happens.”

McClung scored 22 points to lead Buckhannon (26-2) and collected six steals defensively as BU finishes as the state’s runner-up for a second straight season. Lauren Bennett added 18 points and nine steals in the loss as well. The pair combined for 40 of Buckhannon’s 47 points.

Mace, Kirby, McClung and Bennett all made the all-tournament team, joined by Parkersburg South’s Devin Hefner, George Washington’s Kylie McKennen and Wheeling Park’s Kylie McKennen and Bella Abernathy.

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