MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Just a few days ago, Wheeling Park was beating Morgantown at halftime, up a slim margin behind Lindsey Garrison’s shooting and strong team defense. Morgantown managed to rally, though, in the second half, dousing Wheeling Park’s flame in the process.
The loss to Morgantown put Park on another Mon County floor Wednesday night, University’s, in a fight for a state-title bid. This time around, the Patriots (15-3) pushed well ahead in the first half behind 14 points from Garrison to win the Region I co-regional championship, 58-37.
“We knew we needed to be more offensive-minded,” WP coach Ryan Young said. “We scored one field goal in the third quarter against Morgantown. We held them to nine field goals in that game. If you do that, especially with how we usually are offensively, for the most part, you think that’d be enough to win a game. It was all about getting everyone else involved.’
Just like Friday’s game at Morgantown, the Patriots put six quick points on the board off two 3-pointers from Garrison. As the buckets continued to fall and their press forced plenty of UHS turnovers, Park jumped out to a big 19-6 lead at the end of the first.
The second quarter saw Park pull back on the press after picking up two quick fouls on Eden Gibson on inbound passes. Still, the Patriots tightened up their zone, forcing bad shots or more turnovers on UHS. The Hawks were only able to find two field goals the entire quarter, while Park added 10 more, taking a 19-point lead at the half.
The Hawks (11-8) finally found some momentum in the second half, scoring 27, but Park maintained its big lead to eventually put away the game.
Garrison led the way for Park with 19 points, while Bella Abernathy added 13 to round out the double-digit scorers. After many of her deep balls wouldn’t fall Friday, going into Wednesday’s game, Garrison told herself to stay positive.
“I knew my teammates would get me good passes, they always do,” she said. “Stay positive, and even if I’m not making the shots, get it to someone else who would so we can just score and win.”
Eden Gibson paced University with nine points. Ella Simpson added eight and Lauren Dean had seven. No Hawks scored in double figures.
Despite missing states after series of tournament runs, UHS coach David Price has a lot to be happy about. His entire team is returning – Dean is the oldest starter, a junior – and they got the games in they wanted despite having a crunched season.
“We had some young people really play beyond their years,” Price said. “They’ve been fierce competitors all year long, including the second time we faced this team in the season. We took them to overtime and were two kids down. I think the stage was pretty big tonight. Take your hats off to Wheeling Park; they outplayed us tonight in every facet. We’re going to continue to keep getting better. I’m excited about that.”
“That game last time we were down here was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to us,” Young said. “They got our attention. We have a lot of respect for them, a lot of respect for coach Price, and we just came in focused. Now it’s back to the lab and see if we can get ready to make some noise down in Charleston.”
The Patriots now return to the girls’ state tournament after a one-year hiatus, being knocked out of the postseason last year in the co-region championship by a last-minute bucket by Morgantown. Now, Garrison has the hope every basketball player does that has joined the eight-team bracket – win the title.
“We’re as a team going to stay positive, keep working hard at practice, just giving it our all,” Garrison said. “I’ve only made it down there once as a varsity player and we lost first round.”
The Patriots will get another shot at the Mohigans as they enter the state tournament as the No. 5 seed, matched up with No. 4 MHS in the first round, schedule for 9 p.m. April 29.
Box score
Wheeling Park (15-3) 19 10 14 15 – 58
University (11-8) 6 4 12 15 – 37
WP: Lindsey Garrison 7 0-0 19; Bella Abernathy 3 7-11 13; Mary Stakem 3 3-4 9; Asia Roby 2 2-2 6; Sophie Abraham 1 0-0 3; Naliah Lekanudos 1 0-2 3; Zariah Marling 1 0-0 3; Jai’lah Walker 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 12-19 58.
UHS: Eden Gibson 3 2-2 9; Ella Simpson 4 0-0 8; Lauren Dean 3 0-0 7; Emily Sharkey 2 2-2 6; Lily Jordan 1 0-0 2; Maddy McClurg 1 0-0 2; Ashlyn Weaver 1 0-0 3. Totals: 15 4-4 37.
3-pointers: WP 8 (Garrison 5, Abraham, Lekanudos, Marling); UHS 3 (Weaver, Dean, Gibson).
