Wheeling Park Boys Secure Bragging Rights Over John Marshall
Patriots defeat rival Monarchs
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MOUNDSVILLE -- It was not the prettiest basketball game ever played, but it goes in the win column all the same as the Wheeling Park boys' basketball team defeated rival John Marshall, 70-52, on Tuesday in its final game before winter break.
The Patriots (3-3) started off hot against their rivals, opening the game on a 10-1 run and eventually going up 19-3 near the end of the first quarter. The Monarchs (1-4) scored their first three points on free throws and did not put a ball through the hoop during play until Grant Neiwonger made a layup with less than 30 seconds left in the first quarter.
"We weren't very good today," said JM coach Chad Clutter. "We didn't make anything. To be real blunt, we just weren't very good today."
JM scored just three baskets in a similarly dour second quarter and went into halftime trailing 36-16.
"We haven't played a full game yet and probably played the worst half of basketball I've seen in a long time," Clutter said. "They defended us the way we need to be defended and we didn't respond."
JM's best scorer, Roman Gray, was limited to just a single free throw in the first half, but opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer that put a little bit of life back into the Monarchs.
"Roman hit a jump shop right off the bat when we set up a re-screen for him and it looked pretty," Clutter said. "That's what you have to do in order to stay in ball games and we only did that a very few number of times during the whole contest."
Gray's triple kicked off a 7-0 run for JM to being the second half. Park responded with its own 7-0 run, however, to erase their progress.
"I thought in the third quarter, to John Marshall's credit, they came out and battled us and we weren't very sharp to open the third," Park coach Michael Jebbia said. "I thought our turnovers were a little high and our play was a little sloppy. I give John Marshall credit for coming out in the third and out-playing us really. They always play us tough when we come down here."
The Monarchs out-scored the Patriots 21-16 in the third, but by then it was too little, too late. JM battled Park's lead as low as 12 in the fourth quarter, but never got any closer.
The Patriots were led by junior Brett Phillips, who scored tough basket after tough basket to lead the team with 18 points.
"He's a trooper," Jebbia said. "He scores a lot of points for us, but it's really his leadership and his intangibles. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but he sat six minutes in the third (quarter) and that's when we weren't as crisp."
JM's top scorers were Neiswonger and Braden Sobutka with 10 points apiece. Gray finished with eight as Park's defense focused on him all night.
"He's their best player, we ran a lot of different guys at him," Jebbia explained. "I thought we let some of their other guys get loose, but we definitely wanted to try and take Gray away, he's a very good player."
"Honestly, they took just about everybody away," Clutter admitted. "We had trouble going north-south, they did a good job of pushing us to the sidelines and then guarding the extra pass.
"The second half was a little better, we scored 30-some points against a pretty good Wheeling Park team, but there's no excuses ... Defensively, we just weren't able to stop their penetration and keep them in front of us. "
Freshman Aiden Davis finished second for Park with 17 points including three 3-pointers. Brenden Richter and Xander Gibson both contributed eight.
John Marshall will squeeze one final game in before they break for the holidays, hosting Brooke on Thursday, and Wheeling Park will be off until Thursday, Dec. 30 when they host Parkersburg.