PARKERSBURG - Wirt County knocked off Class A No. 10 Buffalo Wednesday night for the second time in a week as Stone Cheuvront and Miriam Smith each tallied 13 points to lead the Tigers to a 60-47 win over the Bison in the first round of the 17th annual Mary O Crusaderette Classic at Parkersburg Catholic High School.
Kayla Kinney and Liz Adams added 10 points each and Amanda Clark netted eight for Wirt, now 3-5, which will play host and Class A No. 4 PCHS (4-2) in the championship game at 7:30 p.m. today, preceded by Buffalo (5-3) taking on the Crusaderette JVs at 6 p.m.
With Mary O herself in attendance Wednesday, the Tigers led all the way, although they had to stave off a rallying Bison squad in the fourth quarter.
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Photo by Jeff Baughan
Buffalo's Chelsey Parkins goes after the ball after becoming tangled up with Wirt's Miriam Smith Wednesday during the opening night of the Mary O Crusaderette Classic. Wirt defeated Buffalo by a 60-47 margin.
From 19 ahead at 46-27 just 28 seconds into the final period, Wirt saw its lead shrink all the way down to four three times - the last at 50-46 with 4:15 to play - as Buffalo cut 15 points off its deficit in an initial span of only 2:16.
But when the margin got to just 50-46, the Tigers responded by scoring 10 of the game's final 11 points to secure another victory over the Bison after edging out Buffalo, 50-49, on Dec. 19 on its homecourt.
Cheuvront drove down the lane for a bank-shot basket with 2:33 to play, then followed with two free throws at the 1:45 mark to up her team's advantage back to 54-46. Smith sank a foul shot at 1:33 and, after a Buffalo charity toss, Wirt beat the Bison back down the floor for a field goal by Adams with a minute remaining to open a 10-point, 57-47, bulge.
Cheuvront sank a foul shot at 27.6 seconds and Adams finished off the Bison, picking up a loose ball and getting it ahead to Cheuvront for a layup with 9.1 seconds left.
Wirt led 10-7 after one quarter and was on top 24-17 at the half before an 8-0 run to start the third period - fueled by buckets by Smith, Kinney, Cheuvront and then Smith again - hiked the spread to 32-17 and it was as much as 19 twice before the quarter concluded.
Chelsey Parkins paced Buffalo's point production with 11, followed by Olivia Dunn with nine, and Tiffani Bailey and Katie Allen with eight each.
''We started out (the season) by playing some of the tougher teams in the (Little Kanawha) conference - Ravenswood, St. Marys and Clay County,'' said Wirt head coach Lijiah Heiney. ''But we're progressing, and have been in just about every game.
''And tonight, we looked good. Anytime we can get out and run, that's good for us, and we have to be able to do that because we're not tall enough or big enough to match up with a lot of teams. So we've got to move the ball and run the ball down the court.''
