PARKERSBURG - St. Marys freshman Ashley Hall scored a game-high 18 points and had two treys in a 10-0 run to close the first half to give the Blue Devils a 13-point lead, and host Parkersburg Catholic got no closer than that in the second half as the Crusaderettes fell 53-40 in an key early-season LKC North girls basketball game Wednesday night.
The matchup of top-5 Class A girls teams in the state saw second-ranked St. Marys improve to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the LKC North while No. 4 PCHS dropped to 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the conference.
The Blue Devils never trailed in the game, using a trio of treys in the first quarter by Dani Moore, Hall and Mikaela Britton to forge a 14-9 lead after the initial eight minutes of action.
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Photo by Jay W. Bennett
St. Marys’ Ashley Hall shoots over the outstretched arm of Parkersburg Catholic’s Maddie Roedersheimer during Wednesday night’s game. The Blue Devils won, 53-40.
But in the second stanza, Catholic managed just four points, on two baskets, to 12 points for St. Marys. After PCHS' Riley Sturm drove the baseline for a bucket at 4:04 to narrow the gap to 16-13, the Blue Devils finished off the period on a 10-0 spurt with Hall draining a pair of 3-balls from the left wing at the three-minute and 30-second marks.
Then when St. Marys began the second half with a 5-0 spurt, Catholic saw its deficit grow to 18 at 31-13.
The Crusaderettes, though, weren't done yet, as senior Maddie Roedersheimer sparked a Catholic comeback on both ends that got the margin down to 14 twice, but no further as PC was still behind 39-23 going to the fourth quarter.
Catholic canned three treys in the fourth quarter, two by Leah Hughes in a 10-2 run, but only after St. Marys had built a 21-point lead, 46-25, with just 5:09 left in the game.
Abbi Fetty and Kendra Walker each added eight points and Moore notched seven for the Blue Devils, while Rachel Nill paced PCHS with 12 points, followed by Roedersheimer and Hughes with 11 each.
''When you've got a freshman like Ashley who can come off the bench and shoot the way she does, it gives us another weapon,'' said St. Marys head coach Howard Meeks. ''Tonight, Hall stepped up. She's going to be a good one on down the road, but I was really impressed with the way she played.''
Catholic head coach Marty Vierheller was exasperated with his team's offensive ineptness in the second quarter, a telling in the game. ''Tonight, but especially in the second quarter, we were our own worst enemy,'' he said. ''We could not get out of our own way. We did not execute anything offensively. and we have ourselves to blame. But as as a team as a whole, we just need to execute the way that we know how. But we sure didn't tonight.''
