Photo by Cody Tomer Wheeling Park’s Lala Woods takes a shot during a game earlier in the season. Woods and the Patriots defeated Buckhannon-Upshur on Wednesday and are state-bound for the second year in a row.

TENNERTON, W.Va. — The second half of Wednesday’s Class AAAA Region I girls basketball game at Buckhannon-Upshur wasn’t much more than a victory lap for Wheeling Park.

The visiting Patriots used a dominant performance after the break to close out the host Buccaneers 79-36 and clinch their spot in the Class AAAA state tournament. Wheeling Park turned a 37-22 halftime lead into a 57-24 advantage about six minutes into the third quarter to remove any doubt about the outcome.

“We were definitely a little concerned about how we would rebound from that tough loss to Morgantown in the sectional,” Park coach Ryan Young said. “Naliah Lekanudos and Merritt were both injured so our depth was shorter than usual. Then, we couldn’t make a shot during the first few minutes but once we got a couple to go in and started sharing the ball and began to get balanced scoring the rest of the way.”

With Wheeling Park (18-6) entering the game ranked No. 3 and B-U at No. 6 in the Class AAAA AP poll, one highly-ranked team was going to have to miss out on a trip to Charleston. The first several minutes looked very different from the rest of the game, with Shelby McDaniels knocking down two 3-pointers for B-U to take a 6-0 lead. The Patriots couldn’t buy a bucket early and didn’t get on the board until more than halfway through the quarter.

Wheeling Park’s superiority began to set in as the quarter wore on, however. A steal and 3-pointer by Lala Woods gave the Patriots a 9-8 lead with 1:50 left, and they embarked on a 14-0 run that bridged the first and second quarters, leaving the score at 18-8. They forced eight B-U turnovers in the first without losing a single one of their own.

The lead grew steadily to 15 points by halftime. Wheeling Park did a great job all night of finding open looks, and its stable of shooters had no trouble knocking them down, apart from the dry spell early in the first quarter. Four Patriot starters scored in double figures.

The game still felt within reach at halftime, with the Bucs (19-6) only needing one big run to close the gap. But the Patriots poured on the points with a 20-2 run that drained the energy of the home crowd and seemed to break B-U’s resolve. It was 59-29 at the end of the third.

Shots rained from every spot on the floor for Wheeling Park. The Patriots made 13 3s, with Woods, Natalie Daugherty and Alexis Bordas making four apiece. It seemed that every small B-U mistake was punished with points at the other end.

Bordas was the leading scorer with 26 points. Wheeling Park got 18 from Woods, 14 from Daugherty and 14 from Sophie Abraham. Jai’lah Walker grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

“We are tough to beat when we play like that,” Young said. “Alexis was great from the field and had seven rebounds, too. Lala was great from the floor and had six assists. Sophie Abraham had 14 points and five rebounds and Zariah Marling, Jai’lah Walker and Jillian Huffman all gave us great contributions. We had good balance from everybody.”

Wheeling Park will be the No. 3 seed at the state tournament and will face No. 6 Jefferson in a 9:30 a.m. March 10 quarterfinal game in Charleston.

“I told the girls in the locker room that we have had a lot of crazy games this year,” Young said. “We are a young team but we’ve been through every senario –coming from behind, being caught from behind, triple overtime games and games coming down to the final seconds. We’ve seen it all and I think that is a blessing for us even with tough losses.

“We beat Jefferson earlier this year but we have a lot of respect for them and we’re going to be ready to play them on Thursday. We’re taking this one game at a time.”