MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Dave Tallman hasn’t yet seen his Morgantown boys basketball team rise to the occasion in the manner the veteran coach hopes for.
On Thursday, an inability to convert quality looks and free throws nearly led to the Mohigans suffering their first loss, but Morgantown made enough plays in overtime to claim a 68-66 victory over Parkersburg South.
“Parkersburg South has a good team that’s well-coached, but we have to have guys that step up when the bright lights are on and make shots,” Tallman said. “We don’t have anybody stepping up and making shots. I don’t know what else I can do. Usually, I’m taking the blame. I know we won, but I’m trying to win in March — not today. The word potential is really dangerous. I want performance, not potential. We have a lot of guys with potential right now that aren’t performing.”
The pivotal stretch of the extra session came with the Mohigans (7-0) in possession and trailing 61-60. Collin Ridgeway penetrated into the lane and kicked out to the corner where he found Marcus Goins for a go-ahead three-pointer with 1:10 remaining.
Go-ahead three-pointer in overtime for Morgantown’s Marcus Goins.
Shot turned a one-point deficit into a two-point lead and the Mohigans were in front the rest of the way.#wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/iEsvHcKndH
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) January 9, 2026
Seconds later, Ridgeway came up with a steal and turned it into a layup to leave MHS with a four-point advantage.
Yet just as the Patriots (6-2) did throughout the evening, they continued to counter back and got two free throws from Chase Offenberger and two more from Harry Silvis with 20 seconds left after Ridgeway had split a pair.
Sam Frey made two foul shots with 15 seconds left to leave the Mohigans with a 68-65 lead.
On Parkersburg South’s next possession, Taj Joyce was fouled while attempting a three with 4.2 seconds left. Joyce, who had made each of his first seven free-throw attempts, knocked down the first, but missed the second. He then intentionally missed the third, and a scrum for the rebound led to the ball going out of bounds with possession awarded to PSHS with 1 second remaining.
The Patriots got a decent look with Baron Davis finding Joyce behind the arc, but his attempt at the victory missed off the back rim as time expired.
Two nights earlier, Joyce made a game-winning triple at Huntington.
“The other night, Taj buried that. It was a little bit cleaner look, but same shot,” Patriots’ head coach Mike Fallon said.
FINAL: Morgantown 68, Parkersburg South 66
Silvis led the Patriots (6-2) with 25 points and Joyce added 20 in defeat. Patriots had this shot to win on final possession.
Mohigans (7-0) got 16 points from Ridgeway, 16 from Waylon Colistra and 12 from Arlo Colistra.#wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/jDnGL06DDi
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) January 9, 2026
MHS scored the first seven points of the matchup and the last nine of the opening quarter after the game had been tied at 10. Were it not for the Mohigans missing all five of their foul shots in the opening frame, the lead would’ve been more than nine.
Morgantown’s advantage was 30-19 when Frey finished a reverse layup, but the Patriots closed the first half on a 6-0 spurt to pull to within five. That stretch featured a Harry Silvis triple, two free throws from Joyce and one free throw from Drew Blough.
The Mohigans led 39-30 in the third after Goins connected from long range, but the visitors ended the period on a 10-1 run, getting a Davis three, Cam Fallon’s conventional three-point play and four points from Silvis to draw even at 40.
Silvis opened the fourth-quarter scoring with a trey that enabled Fallon’s team to lead for the first time.
His conventional three-point play with 2:30 left tied the game at 51, but Waylon Colistra countered with a trey to give the Mohigans the lead again.
When Ridgeway made two free throws with 1:21 remaining, the Mohigans led by five. However, Joyce answered with a clutch trey, and two foul shots from Matthew Mullen knotted the matchup at 58.
Out of a timeout, MHS got exactly what it wanted when Arlo Colistra found a cutting Waylon Colistra, whose layup was off the mark. The Mohigans regained possession with time winding down, but Max Frey’s bucket was ruled to have come after time expired and thus waved off, sending the game to overtime.
This was ruled no bucket to end regulation. #wvprepbb pic.twitter.com/3n2wfcNonJ
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) January 9, 2026
“We only won this game because of our press and our defense and somewhat of our rebounding,” Tallman said. “Thank God it’s January. We have two months to get ready, but right now, we’re not ready. Playing a lot of sophomores and a couple juniors, but it’s a shame when we have seniors that have been here that aren’t performing. We have a layup to win the game and miss it. We have a bunch of free throws and miss them.”
A layup from Joyce in the extra session provided Parkersburg South with its lone overtime lead 61-60.
“Those games you win by 30 and 40, you don’t get much out of,” coach Fallon said. “Today was a regional-type game and environment. Both sides had good crowds and there was a lot of big plays. Kids made plays when they had to. The good thing about this is getting film for down the road. They did some things against our zone. We hadn’t worked on that zone a whole lot and kind of just stuck it in yesterday and they manipulated us a couple times.”
Silvis led all players with 25 points and Joyce added 20 in defeat.
“Taj is a stud. He can play. He’s kind of Harry’s sidekick, but the cool thing about those two is they don’t get upset if one is taking more shots,” coach Fallon said. “They play together and I thought our team was very coachable today. We were locked in and ready to go. We hadn’t played well the last three games, but we did a lot of good things that we had to do.”
The Patriots made 19-of-40 field-goal attempts and 20-of-24 free throws, but they were responsible for 25 of the game’s 36 turnovers.
The Mohigans made 22-of-55 shots and 17-of-29 free throws.
Ridgeway made his first five shots and finished 6 of 8 while tying Waylon Colistra for team-high scoring honors with 16. Arlo Colistra added 12 points in the win.
“You should see us practice. We don’t miss anything in practice,” Tallman said. “My dad always said the greats wanted the ball in big games. Right now, I’m still searching for that guy that wants the ball. They have two guys that want the ball. We’re still searching.”