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Park Boys Edge Past Rival JM

Vargo, King come up big in fourth quarter

Photo by Cody Tomer Wheeling Park’s Alex Dunlevy goes up for a shot as John Marshall’s Bryce Yoho (2) defends. The Monarchs’ Adam Miller (4) and the Patriots’ DeVaughn McWhorter (3) look on during Friday night’s game.

MOUNDSVILLE — It has not been very often that a Wheeling Park-John Marshall game has been close in the fourth quarter.

This one had a different feel from the opening tip. In the end, though, the result remained the same: a Wheeling Park victory.

Keondre King came up with big shots in the fourth quarter, Alex Vargo was nearly perfect from the line and the Patriots hung on for a 57-54 victory against the Monarchs on Friday night at the John Marshall Field House.

“It was a good high school game and our guys made enough plays down the stretch,” Wheeling Park coach Michael Jebbia said. “Give John Marshall credit, they made adjustments going to zone and slowing us down. We tried to explain to our guys that John Marshall is going to fight until the bitter end and nine-, 10-point lead, they are going to keep fighting.

“Gunner Thompson made some nice plays for them and (Bryce) Yoho is a handful in there. He is one of the bigger players we have played against all year. We will take the win.”

Early in the second quarter, Yoho hit a basket inside to give the Monarchs a 13-11 lead, their first since 2-1.

Then it was all Park.

The Patriots (6-2) went on a 15-2 run to close out the second quarter to go into halftime with a nine-point advantage.

“(Wheeling Park was) challenged and then went on a big run, similar to what they did (Thursday) against Brooke,” John Marshall coach Chad Clutter said. “Then they controlled the game and they have a couple guys out there that know how to control a game. (Jack) Stakem, Vargo and Alex Dunlevy did a nice job out there for them.”

The Monarchs (3-5) clawed back in the second half and got it to 41-40 early in the fourth quarter with two Yoho free throws.

Vargo hit a free throw and King nailed a basket to stretch the lead back to four.

With 2:30 remaining, Thompson — who in the second quarter became the third player in JM history to eclipse 1,000 points — hit a turnaround jumper to make it 48-46.

King kept pace with his opponent, hitting a pull-up jumper on the other end to extend the lead.

Clinton Whitelach rebounded a missed shot and put it back to make it a one-score game again.

Vargo answered by hitting his only field goal in the fourth quarter to make it 52-48.

On the other end, Thompson missed a jumper along the baseline to end the back-and-forth scoring.

From there, it became a free-throw shooting contest, where Vargo was up the task. He made 6 of 7 in the final eight minutes.

King and Vargo each scored 17 points to pace the Patriots with the duo both scoring eight of those in the final stanza. Travis Zimmerman added 10 points.

“Vargo didn’t finish all his shots, but he was crafty enough to get to the line with 15 free throws,” Jebbia said. “Keondre and Alex, those are the guys that do all the scoring for us and we expect that from them. Jack Stakem, he made plays that don’t always show up, grabbing loose balls, having four assists and keeping us under control.

“We are a solid team right now, but we aren’t where we need to be to be one of the top five or six teams in Class AAA. There is still a gap and we have to keep going one day at a time.”

Thompson and Yoho shared game-high honors, each with 18. Justin Frohnapfel scored 10.

“I would have liked to have won and this is the most entertaining game between John Marshall and Wheeling Park in a while,” Clutter said. “We just have to fine-tune a few things. We did enough to stay in it. We got a little better on the rebounding in the second half. In the first half, they didn’t have one bucket outside of the paint. They were getting the dribble-drives and outrebounding us.

“We really turned the corner. We had the bench in the game, the fans in the game. Even though we lost, we can really look at this as a turning point for John Marshall.”

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