Parkersburg - 

Parkersburg South    14   15  25   31   =   85

Parkersburg              11     8    7   18   =   44

Parkersburg South Scoring:   Floyd 20, Stephens 16, Molinari 13, Harvey 11, Blair 10, McDonald 5, Wofle 4, Curry 3, Harbour 3.

PHS Scoring:   Ball 14, Offenberger 8, Cobb 6, Rhodes 4, Thompson 3, Rader 3, Lane 2, Hixon 2, Morris 1, Michael 1.

South Statistics:   Rebounds, 37 (Blair 10, Stephens 8);  Assists, 18 (Floyd 8);   Steals, 12;  Turnovers, 17;   Field Goal Shooting, 31-59 (53%);  3-Point Field Goal Shooting, 5-13 (39%);  Free-Throw Shooting, 18-25 (72%).

PHS Statistics:   Rebounds, 23;   Turnovers, 18;  Field Goal Shooting, 14-45 (31%);  3-Point Field Goal Shooting, 2-8 (25%);   Free-Throw Shooting, 14-31 (45%).

JV:   Parkersburg South 50, Parkersburg 36

South JV Scoring:   Shreves 8, S. Harvey 8, McDonald 6, E. Houser 5, Harbour 4, Gard 4, Crislip 4, Meadows 3, S. Houser 3, Stephens 3, Nutter 2.

South girls win big

By STEVE HEMMELGARN, Parkersburg News & Sentinel

PARKERSBURG - A decisive third quarter, when Parkersburg South totally took control of the game, enabled the Patriots to coast home with a 41-point girls basketball win, 85-44, over arch-rival Parkersburg High at Memorial Fieldhouse Friday night.

The impressive win for South, after a slew of close games, upped the Patriots' record to 5-3 while PHS fell to 4-4.

South actually began its assalt in the second stanza with a 15-8 point advantage. But in the third quarter, the Patriots really got rolling, dominating every aspect of the game - shooting, rebounding and defense - to turn the Big Reds' the proverbial every which way but loose.

In the last half, South piled up 56 points to just 25 for PHS.

''The last two or three games, we have not come out and played well in the third quarter,'' said first-year South head coach Scott Stephens, a former Big Red basketball player. ''So I challenged them at halftime to turn that around. We needed a big third quarter, and we came out and closed the game out basically.''

Heidi Floyd paced the Patriot point-production with 20 points, followed by Jill Stephens with 16, Michelle Molinari with 13, Brittany Harvey with 11 and Lauren Blair with 10. Tabi Ball led PHS with 14 points.

''Our team gets on a run sometimes, and I don't know why or what clicks in, but when it starts clicking, we can reallly put up the numbers,'' said coach Stephens.

For PHS, it was a long night to absorb a 41-point loss. ''We hung in there close until the third quarter, but it seemed like they didn't miss a shot from then on,'' said PHS head coach Don Stansberry.

''We went to a half-court defense and didn't pressure them as much as we had been, and it just didn't work.''

And as simplistic as it sounds, Stansberry said ''it almost seemed like they couldn't miss a shot (in the second half) and we couldn't make one.

''We called some timeouts and tried to change some things, but nothing seemed to work.''

PHS played basically without 5-11 Aana Wherry in the middle.

''She stepped on somebody's foot early on, then we tried to put her back in, but she couldn't go,'' said Stansberry.

''That was part of it, but far from the whole thing for us.''

Scott Stephens was more than happy to get his first win over his alma mater in his first try. ''It was nice to come back to this gym,'' he said. ''I love this gym, it's fun to come here and play, and it's nice to get my first win here as a head coach.''