photo by: Kim North

Wheeling Park’s Alexis Bordas dribbles against the pressure of John Marshall’s Masyn Inclan during Wednesday night’s game inside the ‘Palace on the Hill’ at Wheeling Park High School.

WHEELING – For those out there that thought Wheeling Park was going to need Duquesne University signee Alexis Bordas to score 50 points every night for the Patriots to win, think again.

Bordas went for 28 Wednesday night, but three others joined her in double figures as Wheeling Park (2-1) blew past visiting and previously undefeated John Marshall, 72-48, inside the ‘Palace on the Hill’ high atop the Friendly City.

Maggie Hupp had 13 points while Karringtyn Miller and Dani Daugherty evenly divided two dozen. The trio combined to knock down 10 three-point shots.

“We received great contributions from everybody,” Young praised. “We had four players in double digits. In the first two games we played we didn’t have that. We need that. Maggie, Karringtyn and Dani did a great job of knocking down shots. Kaylee (Hunt) and Hailey (Downer) did a great job on the boards.

“The one thing about our team and all the new faces, I think we can play pretty deep into our bench,” Young added. “I have trust in all 12 of them at this point. You never know when your number is going to be called. We’re going to approach every game one at a time.”

The Patriots lost three seniors to graduation last spring from their W.Va. Class AAAA state championship squad, saw their sixth player transfer and then had University of Maine signee Lala Woods go down with a season-ending knee injury.

“I was perfectly content with allowing Alexis to score. Our problem was the others,” John Marshall (3-1) head coach Brock Melko admitted. “We were just playing man-to-man defense. It wasn’t like we were in a box-and-1. We weren’t planning to give up so many open shots, and we did. We have to play better defense at the end of the day.

“They shot really well, and credit to them for doing so,” Melko said. “We were so focused on (stopping) Bordas, and she was still able to get her points, but I was pleased with her scoring. We made her work for everything she got, but she is good. She’s not the (Gatorade) State Player of the Year twice for nothing.”

Bordas ignited early with 13 points in the opening quarter as Wheeling Park led 8-3 before rattling off 11 unanswered to bump the count to 19-3. It led 22-5 after eight minutes as John Marshall misfired on its first six shots of the game and charted five turnovers.

“I thought defensively we started out strong,” Young noted. “We just need to play better defensively when we get tired because that’s when we had some breakdowns.

“I told the girls before the game that I wanted them to take a big step tonight,” Young added. “John Marshall has a very good basketball team this year, but we expected to win the game as we do with every game. I was happy with the way we did it. We came out with some confidence and never really let them get back into the game. I thought that was big because when you have an experienced team, that can be hard to do, especially when John Marshall has two really good players in (Rilee) Storm and (Kaylee) White.”

Bordas added seven points in the second quarter and Daugherty drilled a pair of treys as the Patriots built a 44-25 halftime margin.

“Their defense had a lot to do with that. They pressured us pretty good and we settled for some bad shots a few times,” Melko said of his team’s slow start. “Our offense is fine. We’re not going to beat anybody of any caliber playing defense like that.”

Wheeling Park shot 44.8 percent (26-58) from the floor to 31.8 (14-44) for John Marshall. The Monarchs stayed close due to their free-throw shooting as they tickled the twine on 15 of 17 attempts.

Hupp collected eight of the Patriots’ 46 rebounds. Hunt and Downer had six each, while Bordas, Daugherty and Lily Brinker all had five apiece. Bordas also charted five steals and Miller handed out five assists.

Rilee Storm led John Marshall with 21 points. Kaylee White added 13 and Kalyn Reese had seven. Storm also grabbed six rebounds and White had five.

The Monarchs turned the ball over 15 times, two more than the Patriots.

Wheeling Park returns to the court Friday in the Sam Andy Classic inside WesBanco Arena against Martins Ferry. The ball goes up at 4 p.m. John Marshall, meanwhile, travels to Marietta on Tuesday.