CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Paige Shy is anything but her last name when it comes to trying shots from the perimeter.
For the Saint Joseph Central girls basketball team, that was a perfect recipe for success in Saturday’s Class A title game against Parkersburg Catholic.
Shy set a state tournament record with eight 3-pointers and scored 28 points to key the top seed Irish to a resounding 71-46 victory over the No. 2 Crusaderttes at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center.
“I knew I had to keep getting my shots up and stay in my rhythm and eventually I’d hit one,” said Shy, who made all eight 3s over the final three quarters. “Once I hit one, I can get some momentum.
“I’m just extremely happy that we won,” Shy added. “This is exactly how i wanted to end my high school career. It’s just crazy to think that it’s over. This team is special on and off the court.”
The Irish have now won nine Class A championships in the last 11 seasons.
Parkersburg Catholic (24-2) got off to the start it desired and held a 7-2 lead after Leslie Huffman’s 3 at the 5:19 mark of the opening quarter.
But it was all Saint Joseph (23-4) from that point forward, with the Irish taking the lead for good at 10-9 on Hannah Roberts’ layup, then upping it to 19-13 after one quarter thanks to six points from freshman reserve Imani Hickman in the opening period.
“We felt she could get to the basket with the matchup she had and she immediately got some easy buckets,” Irish coach Shannon Lewis said.
“She has a ton of upside to her.”
Three of Shy’s triples came in the second quarter while Parkersburg Catholic was still well within striking distance.
After scoring two points in the opening quarter, the Marshall signee made a trey with 5:17 left in the opening half to make it 24-18. She scored he team’s final six points of the half on a pair of 3s that helped send St. Joseph into the locker room with a 33-22 lead.
“We didn’t play our best first half, but we did some good things,” Lewis said. “We kept the tempo up in the first quarter and decided that they were getting easy buckets against our full court pressure, so we decided to go to a halfcourt trap and that slowed them in the second quarter.”
The Irish held a 10-0 advantage in bench points at the break and allowed the Crusaderettes to score only three points off turnovers in the first half.
Shy had 11 first-half points, while Hickman, Dena Jarrells and Hannah Roberts scored six apiece.
“I didn’t feel we could lay off anybody,” PC coach Marty Vierheller said. “I didn’t feel good about that at all, and we really came into the game thinking we were going to switch things up and play multiple defenses like we did against Trinity. But they’re so good and so polished, if you play a zone, they’re patient and they’ll get an open look.”
Shy scored her team’s first six points of the second half on a pair of 3s, and added two more shortly after to push the lead out to 49-26 at the 3:04 mark of the third.
Shy’s record-breaking trey came with 2:26 to play and made it 68-40, before she and Jarrells came off the court together in the final game of their prep careers.
“We told Shannon to take us out together because we wanted to come off the court together,” Jarrells said. “We’re all like a bunch of sisters on the team from the first to the thirteenth girl off the bench. W’re a huge family and I couldn’t be happier.”
Jarrells finished with 14 points, while Roberts added 12 points and nine rebounds.
The Irish made 12 3s as a team, which accounted for nearly half of their 26 field goals.
“You have to pick your poison,” Vierheller said.
Shy also had eight rebounds in the win, helping Saint Joseph hold a 47-39 advantage on the glass.
Aaliyah Brunny’s 15 points led the Crusaderettes, while Madeline Huffman and Leslie Huffman added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
CLASS A ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Reagan Sharp, Trinity
Mady Winters, Magnolia
Eden Gainer, Wheeling Central
Madeline Huffman, Parkersburg Catholic
Aaliyah Brunny, Parkersburg Catholic
Dena Jarrells, Saint Joseph
Paige Shy, Saint Joseph
Bailee Adkins, Saint Joseph
Video Recap