Photo by Cody Nespor Wheeling Central’s Reagan Olejasz, right, looks to avoid Shadyside defender Rylee Fulton during Thursday night’s game.

WHEELING — Taking advantage of turnovers, Wheeling Central used the final few minutes of each of the first three quarters to keep Shadyside at bay Thursday night as coach Roberta Olejasz’s Maroon Knights earned their first victory of the season against the struggling Tigers.

Junior Lily Vogrin scored a team-high 19 points, while missing the entire second quarter with three fouls, and Central outscored Shadyside 34-14 during the second portion of the first three frames combined enroute to a 73-64 victory over the Tigers on Coach Skip Prosser Court at the Maroon Knights East Wheeling gym.

Olejasz watched her team score the initial seven points of the game. Senior Paige Gorby, junior Gentry Brown and sophomore Macy Hendershot led a 14-4 burst that gave Shadyside (1-5) its first, and only, lead of the night at 14-11. Back-to-back triples from Vogrin gave Wheeling Central (1-2) the lead back as the hosts closed on a 12-5 run to lead 23-19 after a quarter.

Coach Serge Gentile’s Orange-and-Black cut the deficit to one on three occasions early in the second chapter and were still down just 33-31 on a Gorby hoop with 52 ticks remaining in the half. However, the Knights closed on a 7-3 spurt to take a 40-34 edge to the locker room.

The Maroon Knights struggled coming out of the gate in the third with another Gorby basket knotting the count at 42-42at 2:48 of the third.

But again, the end of the quarter was all Central as the hosts scored the final eight markers to push the lead to 53-42 with eight minutes to play. Shadyside was its own worst enemy in the third and while it pulled down 14 rebounds, it turned the ball over 13 times.

Shadyside was never able to get closer than eight the rest of the way with the Knights using an 11-0 run, that extended the lead to 69-53, to put things away.

“It’s nice to get a win under our belt and it was very nice to see the girls playing together so well again,” Olejasz said. “We did some team building exercises last Saturday after losing to Washington because I was a little concerned about how we might recover from that loss. But the girls really came together in that game and did a good job carrying it over into this one.

“I just want to see them keep this kind of play going and continue to play this well as a team.

“We got some real nice play off of our bench from Syd (Doyle) and Ava (Hansen) with Lily (Vogrin) and Keiera (Wilkinson) in foul trouble. We also took our time on offense, did a good job of moving the ball, passing ahead and getting our heads on the rim. When you do that you can see everything so well. I thought we did a better job on the offensive glass in the third quarter as well.

“And we only missed a few foul shots, which is something that we practice a lot, especially when we are tired.”

Vogrin’s 19 points included five triples while Abbey Jones added 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds, Valerie Downing scored 13 and Doyle chipped in 12 off the bench. Gorby led all scorers with 22 points, and finished the double-double with 11 rebounds, Hendershot added 15 markers and Riley Fulton scored 13. Brown tallied 12 points and also pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds as the Tigers grabbed a 38-29 edge off the glass, but turned the ball over 32 times, 12 more than their hosts.

Vogrin picked up her third foul six minutes into the game while Wilkinson was whistled for her fourth just over five minutes into the second quarter and never returned to the contest.

“We missed a lot of easy shots, but Wheeling Central did a good job making things tough for us inside,” Gentile admitted. “I felt like we did a good job attacking and getting them in foul trouble, and we were able to keep it close for a while, but we just couldn’t get enough stops.

“Focusing on free throws and not being flat are things we need to focus on, but most of the things that went wrong are correctable. It’s the little things like playing harder, not being a step behind and not letting the other team dictate to us. We always seem to be reacting and not forcing the issue.”