Wheeling Park’s Shanely Woods works the ball down the court against Morgantown on Tuesday. 
Wheeling Park’s Shanely Woods works the ball down the court against Morgantown on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Alayjah Jones (20) is fouled going for a rebound on Tuesday. 
Wheeling Park’s Lindsey Garrison makes a shot against Morgantown on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Alayjah Jones (20) takes a shot against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Catherine Wassick (13) is fouled by a Wheeling Park player on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Kaitlyn Ammons (25) makes a play against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Kaitlyn Ammons (25) makes a play against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Kaitlyn Ammons (25) makes a play against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Kaitlyn Ammons (25) shoots over a Wheeling Park player on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Catherine Wassick (13) works the ball down the court against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Catherine Wassick (13) works the ball down the court against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Kaitlyn Ammons (25) prepares to take a foul shot on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Kerrington Peasak (14) goes up for the rebound against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Berit Johnson (21) shoots against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Alayjah Jones (20) takes a shot against Wheeling Park’s Abigail Snedeker on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Catherine Wassick (13) works the ball down the court against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Alayjah Jones (20) gets fouled by a Wheeling Park player on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Alayjah Jones (20) works the ball down the court against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Kerrington Peasak (14) looks on during their game against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Alayjah Jones (20) goes for the loose ball against Wheeling Park on Tuesday. 
Morgantown’s Catherine Wassick (13) protects the ball from a Wheeling Park defender on Tuesday.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It’s been a rough year for the young Morgantown High girls’ basketball team on defense, and Tuesday’s 58-42 loss at home against Class AAA No. 1 Wheeling Park (8-0) showed how rough it can be against a high-speed, accurate guard duo.
“I know that’s crazy when you talk about them pressing us, but I think our defense took a step back,” Morgantown coach Jason White said. “We lost some kids early [on their assignments], and that gave them [Wheeling Park] easier shot opportunities, which got them buckets and into that press. Then, that created panic and turnovers [with us]. I think we did better in the second half of settling down and breaking that press, which led to outscoring Wheeling Park in the third quarter. We just didn’t do it consistently enough.”
After winning the tipoff, Morgantown (2-6) almost immediately turned it over. The ensuing Patriots press would cause plenty more turnovers through the first half — 10, to be exact— and would hold the Mohigans scoreless through most of the 1st quarter.
Cat Wassick was the first to score for MHS — hitting a 3-pointer to snap a 12-0 run. Wassick then knocked down a field goal to put five on the board, and Kerrington Peasak tossed in a 2-pointer of her own to cut the lead to 14-7. Keiran Johnson responded for the Patriots to close the half, hitting her second bucket of the quarter to push the lead back to nine points.
It would prove difficult for Morgantown to stay close to the Patriots as Wheeling Park charged ahead for a 29-16 lead at the half, but the Mohigans did begin to force turnovers and hit their shots in the 2nd quarter.
After a Patriots’ turnover, Wassick dished to Kaitlyn Ammons for her first two points of the game, but it was met by a trey by Lindsey Garrison — half of the aforementioned guard duo. Garrison would hit nothing but 3-pointers for a 15-point night, and her two in the 2nd helped the Patriots stay ahead, outscoring MHS 13-9.
The second half proved better for Morgantown, outscoring Wheeling Park 18-15 in the 3rd quarter behind eight points by Berit Johnson and seven from Ammons.
Ammons opened the half with a solid lay-up on a dish by Wassick before she bruised her way into the post for another lay-up and an and-one. Her three-point play pushed the Mohigans within eight of the Patriots, but Wheeling Park began to hit its shots again as Kieran Johnson, Bella Abernathy and Garrison pushed the lead back to double digits.
The fourth quarter saw Garrison and fellow guard Shanley Woods charge ahead with nine points between them off three 3-pointers, and Abernathy hit 5 of 6 free throws to seal the game on a 14-8 run.
“We have to learn that [when] you play a really good team, they’ll expose any little mistake,” White said. “Wheeling Park did that tonight. They made open shots when we helped and when we went under screens. I thought as poor of a performance we’ve had on the boards this year. We knew we had to hit [rebounds] hard. You can’t give them two or three shots, because they will make them.”
Ammons led the Mohigans with 16 points, 14 of which were in the paint. Wassick tossed in 10, and Johnson had eight. MHS hit 16 of 42 (38%) of its shots, and went 7 of 12 (58%) from the free throw line.
Although Garrison was on fire from behind the arc, Woods led the Patriots with 16 points — eight in each half. Abernathy closed out double-digit scoring with 14 points, six coming in the paint, with the remaining coming from an 8 of 12 performance from the charity stripe. Wheeling Park shot 42% (21 of 50) on the night. Abernathy was the only one to visit the free throw line.
Morgantown returns to action Saturday, looking for a redemption win over Musselman. The Lady Applemen defeated the Mohigans 43-40 when they visited Morgantown on Dec. 14. It was a “weird win” — according to White — for Musselman as Morgantown was forced to move the game to University’s second gym due to a water leak at MHS.
“That’s a revenge game for us,” White said. “We’re going to go back and watch film, talk about little things defensively and look at our zone offense. We have to be more aggressive. Bigs have to seal on the back end and we need to attack the zone.”
