South sweeps WCRC titles
By JIM BUTTA, jbutta@newsandsentinel.comPARKERSBURG - Parkersburg South made the trek across the Little Kanawha River a successful one Friday night sweeping both titles in the Wood County Recreation Commission's Summer Basketball League played at Memorial Fieldhouse.
Chase Fieler tallied a game-high 13 points and Matt Emerick added 11 as the Patriots defeated Class AA Tyler Consolidated by a 79-30 margin in the varsity title match while Chris Neal poured in 24 points in a 75-63 victory over the host Big Reds in the junior varsity championship game.
The Patriots went on a 22-3 run to open the second half en route to their blowout victory over the Silver Knights. A trey by Michael Molinari, who tallied a game-high 19 points in a 64-60 win over Parkersburg in the semifinals, ignited the run.
Following a 1-for-2 effort at the charity stripe by the Knights' Dustin Snider, Parkersburg South unleashed a full court trap which clamped down the visitors' offense while Fieler exploded for six of his game-high 13.
Tyler, which defeated Little Kanawha Conference rival Ritchie County by a 57-36 margin to reach the finals, misfired on its first seven field goals of the second half and failed to score a bucket until an Evan Cline steal and layup broke the ice with 11 minutes left to play.
Pacing the Silver Knights in the scoring column was Alex Jones with 10 points. Snider poured in a game-high 20 points in the win over Ritchie County, which received seven points apiece from Cody Masters and Cory Robertson.
The junior varsity championship was a little bit closer as the Big Reds' Devin Hoehn poured in a team-high 23 points to keep the red and white in the game.
A pair of free throws by Hoehn pulled the hosts to within 10, 67-57, but that would be as close as they would get as a triple by the Patriots' Neal and buckets by Ryan Smith, who had 13 points, and Garrett Lynch kept the Big Reds from coming back.
Parkersburg reached the championship game thanks to a 59-53 win over Warren while the Patriots eliminated Marietta in the other semifinal game by a 58-46 margin.
Friday night's contests concluded the 3-week coaching period allowed by the Secondary School Activities Commission.
