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Eagles Edge By Wildcats

Magnolia’s Leo Herrick (23) knocks the ball away from Paden City’s Seth Bohrer during their game Friday in New Martinsville.

NEW MARTINSVILLE — Magnolia coach Dave Tallman can’t figure it out.

Sure he has a young team that is going to go through some growing pains, but slow starts have been a bugaboo all season long.

That trend continued Friday against Paden City as the Blue Eagles fell behind 12-2 to begin the game. But in what he hopes can be a building block for the rest of the season, Magnolia stormed back and held off the Wildcats in a back-and-forth fourth quarter to claim a 57-53 victory in a battle of Wetzel County rivals at Magnolia High School.

“We have been doing it all year,” Tallman said. “We have five new starters and I just cannot believe how bad we play early. I don’t know if we are nervous but we spot every team we play. But we work it out and we played great basketball to win.”

After trailing 14-7 after one, Magnolia won the second quarter, 20-6, including a 11-3 run to take its first lead.

Magnolia (5-7) led by as many as 12 in the third quarter before Paden City (4-7) started to chip away.

The Wildcats cut the deficit to four entering the final eight minutes.

Paden City’s Trey Slider hit his fourth 3-pointer to put Paden City back in front for the first time since early in the second quarter at 41-40.

Magnolia didn’t waste time in retaking the lead as Brooks Parsons scored to put the Blue Eagles back in front.

Despite never trailing again, Magnolia had a hard time putting Paden City away.

Matt Saxson scored on a backdoor layup to tie it at 46-46.

On the next trip up the floor, Parsons put Magnolia back on top 49-46 with a basket and a free throw.

Paden City answered with a Hayden Hizer 3-pointer with 2:01 on the clock.

After a Leo Herrick basket put Magnolia in front again, Hizer hit two free throws to make it 51-51 with 1:41 to go.

Magnolia’s Tyler Williamson answered with another basket inside as Magnolia went up 53-51 with 1:02 to go.

On the other end, Hizer was fouled. Hizer went 8 of 10 from the free-throw line in the game– but this is where his two misses came. Heasley was able to rebound the second miss but the Wildcats, who made 12 3-pointers, couldn’t get Slider’s long attempt to fall.

“(Hizer), look what he does for us. He takes it out, brings it down the floor and gets us our offense and guards their toughest guy,” Paden City coach Fred King said. “He has made some big shots, (Friday) he didn’t make those and I am confident he will make the next ones. I have seen him put 10 straight in one night and help us win a big game. It was unfortunate.”

Leo Herrick grabbed the rebound and was fouled.

Herrick hit all four of his free throws down the stretch to seal a victory.

“Our free throws have been another problem,” Tallman said. “I am real pleased with the effort. This is a big game for us because it was a sectional seeding game for us. This puts us in a pretty good position if we can keep getting better.

“The other night we were down to Valley and found a way to come back and win. They are starting to get it a little bit and we have improved from our first day of practice until now a great deal. If we can get that first quarter straightened out, I think we can compete with anybody.”

Despite the loss, King was glowing about his kids’ effort.

“I am very proud of our kids,” King said. “We did everything right until three straight turnovers in the first half where they went on a big run and that is when we lost the momentum.

“The kind of mistakes we made were aggressive, ‘I’m trying to win, Coach’ mistakes and you cannot ask for anything more than that. I can live with those kind of mistakes. They are trying to make plays. When you are trying to make plays and you commit turnovers, that is OK with me. Sometimes we forced a couple shots, but we made a lot of them and I have praise for them, especially Hayden and Aaron. There are good players in the valley, but I wouldn’t take any of them over those two.”

Parsons paced Magnolia with 18 points, followed by Williamson with 11 and Herrick with 10. Heasley hit five 3-pointers and had a game 20 points for the Wildcats. Hizer finished with 16 and Slider had 12.

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