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Wheeling Park Girls Basketball Headed To Charleston After Win Against Morgantown in Class AAA Regional Final

Patriots end Morgantown’s three-year run

Photo by Josh Strope Wheeling Park’s Josie Daugherty cuts down the nets following the Patriots’ 54-44 victory against Morgantown in the Region One Co-Final on Tuesday.

WHEELING – For the last three seasons, Morgantown High School has been the beast that has controlled girls’ basketball in Class AAA in West Virginia.

Tuesday night, Coach Ryan Young’s three-year building process grew to fruition as Wheeling Park took down the beast and advanced to the state tournament for the first time in five years.

Led by junior Kylie McKennen’s 11 of 12 performance from the line in the fourth quarter, the Patriots finally pulled out of the Mohigans’ claws, breaking open a game that was within one point entering the fourth quarter, and posting a 54-44 victory to claim a Region One co-championship at the Palace on the Hill.

The victory sends the 18-6 Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Class 5A champions into next week’s state tournament in Charleston, which begins on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Coach Jason White watched his team’s three-year run as state champions come to an end with a 12-12 record.

“We have been building on this for my three years here and all of these kids have contributed so much to make this happen,” Young said with a huge smile. “And after five years it’s definitely a monkey-off-the-back kind of thing.

“I really believe that it is going to be a wide-open tournament in Charleston and anyone has the capability to go there and make some noise next week. We are just so happy to be going and to be a part of it, and hopefully we can be that team.”

Leading 32-31 after three quarters thanks to a McKennen floater with three seconds showing in the third, the Patriots watched Morgantown take its final lead on a Keyira Golden putback just 10 seconds into the fourth.

From that point on Park took control, forcing five turnovers, playing keep-away at times and knocking down big free throws. Senior Emma Kendle’s hoop at 7:25 started an 11-2 run that put the hosts up 43-35 with 2:30 to play.

Morgantown senior standout Lydia Adrian then outscored the Patriots, 5-2, herself to pull back to within 45-40. However, not realizing she had four fouls, Adrian fouled out a short time later trying to send the Patriots to the line. The only Park points during that stretch was a twisting basket from junior Laurel Robb, which White admitted was the one that really hurt his team.

“I couldn’t have asked for much more from my team than to be close, and in a position to win the game in the fourth quarter, and we were,” White said. “We battled back from some early adversity and were keeping the game close to the 40s, where we felt it needed to be.

“But credit Wheeling Park, they did what they needed to do late, including hitting some big free throws. They also made some shots, while we were missing easy ones. We had one point where Robb took a very tough shot, that we would have wanted her to take, and while we couldn’t get one to fall, she did.”

Park put things away with a closing 9-4 spurt that included eight McKennen free throws, the last one coming with 16 seconds to play. Following a late rebound the Patriots, and their fans, went into celebration mode.

In the end, after hitting just 5 of 12 free throws through three quarters, Wheeling Park was a very impressive 16 of 18 from the line over the final eight minutes of play. They were also 21 of 30 for the game while Morgantown hit 5 of 13 from the line, but had five more field goals than the Patriots.

“It wasn’t always pretty either way, but that is kind of the way games go against Morgantown,” Young said. “But the kids knocked down free throws and we pulled away in the end.

“They are an unbelievable defensive team and they really showed that in the second quarter. We started great, but got a little flustered. Remember, these are kids that had not been in a game like this before.”

Park started the game red-hot. After trailing 2-0 the Patriots scored 12 of the next 13 points, 10 of those by senior standout Josie Daugherty, including a pair of 3-pointers.

The Mohigans managed to stay within 17-11 after one, and with the Patriots going 1 of 11 from the field in the second and scoring just four points, Morgantown managed to pull into a 21-21 deadlock at the break.

Daugherty and McKennen each finished with 16 points for the Patriots while Kendle added 10. Adrian paced Morgantown with 12 points while senior Fallon Nicholson chipped in 11. The Mohigans grabbed a 29-24 edge off the glass but turned the ball over 19 times, seven more than their hosts.

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