Wheeling Park’s Explosive Opening Sets Up Big Win Over John Marshall

photo by: Kim North
Wheeling Park’s Sincear Saunders-Paige dribbles against the pressure of John Marshall’s Preston Watkins during Tuesday night’s game inside the ‘Palace on the Hill’ at Wheeling Park High School. The Patriots defeated the Monarchs, 61-41, for the 42nd consecutive time.
WHEELING – Tuesday night’s John Marshall-Wheeling Park boys’ basketball game was nearly a duplicate of their first meeting this season on January 2.
After jumping out to a 16-0 lead to start the prior contest inside the John Marshall Field House en route to a 56-37 triumph, the Patriots (4-9) sprinted to an 18-0 advantage to begin last night in winning 61-41 inside the ‘Palace on the Hill.’
With the 20-point margin of victory, Wheeling Park’s streak of consecutive wins over John Marshall rose to 42. The Monarchs have not defeated the Patriots since Leap Day, Feb. 29, 2008.
“I didn’t expect that tonight,” Wheeling Park head coach Michael Jebbia said. “Our guys were ready. We had a great game here Friday night even though we lost a tough one and the kids kind of fed off of that tonight.”
The Monarchs switched defenses to start, playing zone instead of man-to-man, but it didn’t matter to the Patriots who knocked down 7 of their first 11 shots from the floor, including a sizzling 4-for-5 from three-point land, in taking the huge lead.
“They hit some shots early. We played a zone thinking we could make them shoot from the outside, but they made them,” first-year John Marshall head coach Mike Thomas said. ”
Wheeling Park led 7-0, prompting Thomas to call a 30-second timeout. Following the brief break, the Patriots reeled off the next 11 as Thomas was forced to call a full timeout. J.D. Williams buried a pair of three’s and Josh Huffman had five of his 12 points to spark the surge.
“Their defensive pressure got to us in the first half,” Thomas said as John Marshall had 10 turnovers in the first 16 minutes. “We couldn’t really run anything on offense and couldn’t get anything going.”
During the opening 18-0 run, the Monarchs missed their first five shots of the game and had five first-quarter turnovers.
“I know we made some shots early on, but I thought our guys played really well on defense,” Jebbia said. “We got our hands on the ball for a couple of deflections that led to steals and layups. Kolten (Whitmire) starts everything on defense at the top and, offensively, J.D. (Williams) and Jay (Bordas) each knocked down a three. Multiple guys made threes for us in the first quarter.”
The second quarter was one that both head coaches would like to forget about as the two rivals combined for 10 points and nine turnovers as Wheeling Park led, 28-10, at the half.
The second half saw John Marshall match Wheeling Park’s physicality, but the damage had already been done. The Patriots posted a 33-31 scoring advantage in the final 16 minutes.
“We finally matched up with them in the second half and were able to make some things happen on the offensive end, but it was too little, too late,” Thomas said. “It was the same thing at our place. A slow start forcing us to battle back.”
Jebbia thought the Monarchs outplayed his team in the fourth quarter.
“I thought they outhustled us for 3-4 minutes there,” he noted. “(Bryar) Haught, who started his career with us, is a good athlete. I thought he did a good job for them on the boards, especially in the fourth quarter. I thought (Jackson) Helms played a really good second half.”
Williams led all scorers with 21 points for Wheeling Park. IOn addition to Huffman’s dozen, Jay Bordas drilled a trio of treys to finish with nine and point guard Kolten Whitmire added eight. Sincere Saunders-Paige led the Patriots with five of their 25 rebounds.
Jackson Helms paced John Marshall with 19 points, with 17 coming in the second half. Bryar haught added nine points and a game-best 11 rebounds as he cleaned the glass seven times in the fourth quarter, with six being on the offensive end.
Wheeling Park went 22 of 43 from the field and missed two of 10 foul shots. John Marshall, on the other hand, made just 16 of 43 shots from the floor and only cashed in five of 12 free throws.
The Monarchs also led 16-13 in turnovers.