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Aiden Davis Breaks Wheeling Park 3-Point Record; Patriots Down Rival Monarchs

By NICK HENTHORN 4 min read

GLEN DALE - Aiden Davis broke his school's 3-point record and the Wheeling Park Patriots boys basketball team continued their stretch of dominance over rival John Marshall on Thursday, the Patriots taking a 70-38 road victory.

Davis, a junior, made five 3-pointers in scoring a game-high 17 points, and with his fifth and final long ball in the fourth quarter, Davis reached 203 on his career. That number topped Bubby Goodwin, a three-time all-state player for Park from 2009-2011, who had held the record with 202.

With at least 10 more games to be played this year, and a whole senior season ahead of him, Davis has time to add to his new record.

"Any time you're going up against a team like Wheeling Park, who've got one of the better players in the whole state, Aiden Davis, he does a lot on the basketball court and he's hard to defend," John Marshall head coach Neil McCormick said. "He makes a lot of tough shots, he's a smart player. Knows what to do with the basketball in his hands, knows how to get himself open.”

Park's victory over the Monarchs kept in-tact a winning streak that goes back years; John Marshall last beat Park in 2007.

After dropping their previous game to Morgantown just the night before, Park head coach Michael Jebbia felt good about his team's performance.

"We had a tough road loss last Saturday afternoon, of course last night expended a lot of energy against Morgantown. I just wanted us to go out and play hard, use some of our bench, which we did."

A slow pace led to a low-scoring first quarter, Park ahead 13-7 after one, and the deficit was cut to four after a basket by John Marshall's Jackson Helms inside early in the second.

"You've got to give John Marshall credit, they came out with a pretty good game plan to run some patient offense and keep that score a little bit lower," Jebbia said. "And they hit some shots there in the late first, early second quarter."

Thing started to slip out of control for John Marshall as the game wore on though, with Wheeling Park's Mykel Davis the catalyst for what ended up as a 20-point halftime lead, 34-14.

A steal-and-slam, an alley-oop lay-in, and a hard drive to the hoop on consecutive possessions ignited the Patriots, who were extending their rotation beyond their usual band Thursday.

"I thought some guys off the bench gave us a lift in JD Williams and Andrew Hays and Ryan Linder, both seniors, they really came in and did a nice job. Our guys shared the ball, 17 assists on 29 made baskets."

Linder scored two points, grabbed a rebound and a steal, while Hays recorded a rebound, two steals and an assist.

Mykel Davis finished with 13 points, three steals and six assists. Amare Johnson also scored 13 points, Landon Lewis scored 11, Williams scored eight, and Jacob Hays and Dante Strothers each scored three.

For John Marshall, Brody Williams scored 13 to lead the Monarchs, Kayden Knapp scored nine, and Hayden Gaiser, Conor Fitzpatrick, Jackson Helms and Scott Schenerlein each scored four points.

"I thought our guys competed, and I'm proud of their effort," McCormick said. "Unfortunately we didn't come out on the side we wanted to, but going against Aiden Davis and Mykel Davis and the rest of their team, coach Jebbia does a great job. Not the result we wanted but I'm proud of the effort our guys gave."

John Marshall next plays East Liverpool on Saturday, Jan. 20. Wheeling Park's originally scheduled Saturday game against Parkersburg South was rescheduled to Feb. 13, meaning the Patriots will be off their feet for over a week.

"Our schedules' very hard; we've only won a few games by double figures out of 13," Jebbia said. "We've won a lot of single digit games, our losses are all single digits, we've been in a lot of tight games. So it was good to get back on the winning track after a couple tough losses and we have a big game next Friday night at East Liverpool."

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