The Big Reds (10-3) withstood a 37-point scoring assault from Park’s Alexis Bordas with the help of Porter’s inside presence, strong guard play, and a breakneck third quarter scoring run that put Parkersburg in the drivers’ seat.

“She’s a massive advantage,” Parkersburg head coach Chris Murray said of Porter. “In a game like this, we felt like we had that advantage and I thought she did a really good job of being physical pre-catch and post-catch, I thought she did a really good job. She had really great feet tonight. I was really proud of her effort inside.”

There were three ties and six lead changes in the first half, with Parkersburg extending their lead to seven at halftime, 29-22. Parkersburg led 15-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Out of the break, Parkersburg’s Lauren Flanagan and Frances Guice each made 3’s, and Porter and Sophie Lott each put in 2’s to run off a 10-3 run in the opening two minutes of the third quarter. The Big Reds’ lead had grown to 11, 44-33, going into the fourth quarter.

“Parkersburg is as good of a team as we’re going to see all season,” Wheeling Park head coach Ryan Young said. “We knew that going in. They’re a legit contender, they are super skilled, [Porter] is a load inside, Flanagan is an excellent point guard. They have everything you could want.

“We had a really tough stretch in the third quarter where they were just lights-out shooting. A lot of that had a lot to do with us trying to double-down on Porter but we couldn’t recover back to shooters and they knocked down shots. Take away that stretch, I was really proud of the way we battled back, especially in the fourth quarter, we were able to cut it to six, we played a lot of kids who came in and gave us everything they had, that’s just a really good basketball team.”

Wheeling Park had some success with their defensive pressure in the fourth quarter, and Parkersburg shot 8-15 from the foul line in the final period to help the Patriots come within six points on a few different occasions- 54-48, 58-52- but never any closer.

“They all came in and did what we asked them to do defensively or offensively,” Young said of his team. “It just comes down to the fact that we still need to get some shots knocked down from the perimeter by kids when they’re open. I have no doubt that that’s going to eventually start to happen.

“From an effort standpoint we should be really proud of the way we fought, especially against a team that, once they built up that lead, we could’ve really folded.”

Porter added nine rebounds with her 23 points.

Flanagan had 10 points and four assists, while Guice finished with 14 points.

Bordas’ 37 came with four assists and five steals. The two-time state Player of the Year made seven 3-pointers, including a deep 3 from the left wing that tied the game 15-15 right out of the gates in the second quarter, the last time the contest would be tied before Parkersburg took a permanent lead.

“Alexis is unbelievably hard to guard and we did a really good job on trying to force her to shoot the ball from outside and take some long-range shots,” Murray said. “She’s just so stinking good that she’s able to hit them. I thought we had really good effort throughout the course of the game.

“We executed our stuff well, when they over-helped we were able to skip it and find the open man- I thought we moved the ball really well tonight and took good shots. Fourth quarter, we missed some shots and missed some free throws which shrunk the lead down, but I was proud of our effort.”

Parkersburg plays Capital at home on Wednesday, Jan. 29. Wheeling Park hosts Union Local on Thursday, Jan. 30.