MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown prides itself on playing disruptive defense to prevent opponents from developing rhythm.
When the Mohigans get the kind of balance and execution they displayed on offense in Tuesday’s matchup with Wheeling Park, it makes them that much more difficult to contend with.
Morgantown scored at least 12 points in every quarter, never allowed the Patriots more than 11 in any quarter and put forth a dominant second half to pull away for a 58-37 victory that allows the Mohigans to even the regular season series.
Six MHS players had at least six points in the triumph that allows MHS to even the regular season series after it lost last month at Wheeling Park, 55-45.
“In two weeks that we didn’t play [January 4-17], we worked on sharing the basketball a lot, one more pass and swing it,” MHS head coach John Fowkes said. “It’s always open and that’s what we talked about.”
Wheeling Park (8-4) claimed its last lead halfway through the opening quarter at 7-6 on an Alexis Bordas runner, before Kayli Kellogg countered with a conventional three-point play.
MHS (9-2) settled for a 13-9 advantage through one quarter, and the Mohigans were in front 16-11 early in the second after Sadaya Jones scored on a drive to the bucket.
The Patriots countered with five straight points to get even at 16 on a Karringtyn Miller basket, and the Mohigans led 20-18 before closing the half with their own 5-0 spurt that came about as a result of Jones’ follow-up basket and a Kellogg triple.
The 25-28 halftime score was the largest margin of the opening half.
The Mohigans carried that momentum into the second half and ran off the first seven points to make it 12 straight altogether, getting a Lucie Hatcher layup, another trey from Kellogg and two free throws from Sydney Deusenberry to gain a 14-point advantage.
“We’ve been really good in the second and third quarter,” Fowkes said. “We’re still a little shaky in the first. I don’t know if it’s nerves or youth, but we’ve played really good basketball in the second and third quarters the whole year.”
Bordas’ three with 5:12 remaining in the third marked the Patriots’ first points of the second half and was immediately answered by seven straight points from Morgantown, which led 39-21 after Brenna Nelson scored from close range.
Park made one more run that featured consecutive triples from Bordas and Miller, allowing the visitors to get back to within 10 at 39-29.
But Morgantown ran off the last five points of the third and utilized a Tatum DeVries triple to lead 44-29 entering the fourth.
“At the end of the first half, the lead went from two to seven and then when we came out, we let them extend it,” Patriots’ head coach Ryan Young said. “We’re not a team that’s built to comeback from big deficits. We let our struggles on the offensive end carryover to what I think we do better, which is play defense. We have to make sure that doesn’t happen so we can get back in the game.”
Park got no closer than 13 in the final frame, with that coming after a Miller trey with 2:35 remaining. MHS then ran off the last eight points of the matchup to continue adding separation.
“The competition is fun. It’s not fun losing, but coming into today, we had won eight of ten against them and five in a row,” Young said. “They were hungry to turn the tables there and hopefully next time, we can do the same thing. It’s never going to be easy. It doesn’t matter which team has more talent. It’s going to be a battle every time. It’s a great rival and it’s good for girls high school basketball in West Virginia.”
Kellogg led Morgantown with 19 points and added seven rebounds to help the Mohigans control the battle of the boards, 36-27.
“We’re super proud of Kayli. She’s bought into sharing the ball a lot more and she’s playing a total game and not just looking to score,” Fowkes said. “She’s involved in everything now.”
Deusenberry added 10 points and seven rebounds, while Hatcher and Nelson scored eight apiece.
Jones contributed six points and a game-high eight rebounds and DeVries scored seven in the win.
Fresh off a 58-point outing with 13 three-pointers in her previous game, Bordas led all players with 20 points, although her total came on 28 field-goal attempts. She made eight of her team’s 13 field goals as Park was limited to between 8-11 points in every quarter.
Bordas scored 32 points in the earlier matchup between the two teams this season.
“When you have a good player like Bordas, it’s about team defense,” Fowkes said. “We’re talking about firing on ball screens, trapping her every time she comes off a handoff and trapping her every time she goes baseline. She kind of struggled with the double tonight and we executed the game plan. A key to victory was executing the defensive game plan and if you hold Wheeling Park to 37 points, you’ve done a pretty good job on defense.”