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Park Takes Care of JM

Patriots to play host to Morgantown Tuesday

Photo by Cody Tomer Wheeling Park’s D.J. Saunders fakes to his right before racing up the lane during Friday night’s game against JM.

WHEELING — John Marshall Coach Chad Clutter knew his team needed to get off to a good start Friday night to be able to compete with Wheeling Park, a team that had not held a lead at the end of the first quarter of a game since Jan. 30.

However, the Monarchs were never able to get their footing from the outset and Coach Michael Jebbia’s Patriots turned the page into March with newfound first quarter success.

Senior standout Alex Vargo scored a game-high 32 points and pulled down 10 rebounds and Wheeling Park held John Marshall without a field goal in two different quarters, including the first, as the Patriots ran away with the West Virginia Class AAA Region One, Section One championship with a convincing 65-38 victory at the Palace on the Hill.

With the win Wheeling Park improves to 17-6 on the season and will host Morgantown Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in a Region One co-final with a berth in the state tournament in Charleston on the line. The Patriots, ranked fifth in the final big school state poll, have lost twice to the second-ranked Mohigans this season.

Meanwhile, Clutter’s 8-15 record club will head to Morgantown that same night in the other co-final with a tall task against No. 1 ranked University, which defeated Morgantown for the third time in the Section Two final last night.

“It’s a pretty unique thing that three of the top five big school teams in the state are in this region,” Jebbia said. “But we will game-plan and prepare for Morgantown and we will be ready to go Tuesday night.

“We have been a big underdog in the regional the last two years and probably will be a slight underdog this time around, but we are there, and everyone knows crazy things can happen when March rolls around.”

The Patriots scored the game’s initial eight points with sophomore Nate Hairston, who was filling in for senior Travis Zimmerman, scoring half of those. A pair of Derrick Derrow charity tosses got the Monarchs on the board at 4:22 but Park scored the final 10 points of the chapter to take a commanding 18-2 lead after one.

Vargo scored eight in the frame while Hairston added six. John Marshall, meanwhile, was 0-12 from the field in the quarter and turned the ball over six times.

A 5-0 run early in the second for the visitors cut the deficit to 22-11 with 5:55 to play in the half on a Justin Frohnapfel triple, his only basket of the night, but the Monarchs got no closer all night.

Park pushed the margin to 34-17 at the break and with the Monarchs going without a field goal again in the third, and once again getting just a pair of Derrow free throws, that lead ballooned to 51-19 with eight minutes to play.

Jebbia cleared his bench with the Patriots leading 61-23 midway through the fourth with John Marshall getting five of its 13 field goals for the game in the final 3:56.

Clutter’s squad was a combined 0-for-22 in the first and third quarters and 13-for-33 in the second and fourth.

“We haven’t outscored anyone in the first quarter since Jan. 30,” Jebbia said. “So, it was nice to come out and have a good start (Friday). Nate (Hairston) played very well with good defense, rebounding and scoring but we also hope to have Travis (Zimmerman) back on Tuesday.

“That is the kind of start we are going to need if we are going to be successful on Tuesday.”

Senior Xavier Morris also hit double figures with 10 points for the winners, who grabbed a 37-30 edge off the glass and turned the ball over just eight times, 11 fewer than their guests. Hairston finished with eight points.

Derrow paced the Monarchs with 13 points while senior Izac Babiczuk scored eight of his 10 in the fourth quarter.

“We talked about going out and getting off to a good start, but you can’t just pray that the basketball is going to go in when you throw it up,” Clutter said. “You have to go out and compete on both offense and defense and we didn’t on either end.

“I thought we had them in a little bit of a lethargic state early on, but we couldn’t score, and they ended up pulling away.

“University is the No. 1 team in the state for a reason, but we will go there Tuesday night and hopefully we will be ready and decide to go out and compete against them.”

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