PARKERSBURG - Turnovers.
They killed any Parkersburg Catholic rally down the stretch as the Crusaders, despite 31 points from Jake Ullman, dropped a 65-61 Class A Region IV decision to visiting Buffalo Thursday night, falling a win short of making it to the state boys basketball tournament this season.
Fifth-ranked PC concluded its campaign at 21-4 while with the win, the No. 8 Bison, also 21-4, advanced to the state tournament in Charleston next week
Article Photos
Photo by Jeff Baughan
Parkersburg Catholic's Brady Kurucz, left, and Buffalo's Bradley Harris battle for possession of the ball Thursday during their Class A regional game at Parkersburg Catholic.
Thursday's outcome came down to the final 1:17 after Catholic battled back from seven and eight-point deficits in the fourth quarter. The Crusaders committed three turnovers in a span of 48 seconds, but still PC was only down by five at 62-57 with 23.3 seconds to play after Joe Padden's trey try from the left wing went halfway down in the basket before coming back out.
Buffalo, though, wasn't able to put the game away by missing on six of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter and Padden's two foul shots with 15 seconds remaining narrowed the gap to just four at 63-59. But Catholic got no closer the rest of the way.
''We had five keys to the game and one of them was to take care of the basketball, to limit our turnovers,'' said PC head coach Rob Strcula. ''But turnovers, whether in the first half or at the end of the game, were the back-breaker for us as we shot ourselves in the foot with them when when it seemed like it mattered the most.''
Fact Box
Class A Region IV
at Parkersburg Catholic
Buffalo 65, Catholic 61
Buffalo 16 17 14 18 - 65
Catholic 14 11 16 20 - 61
No. 8 BUFFALO (21-4)
Isaiah Robinson 7 1-1 15, Laythem Good 3 4-8 12, Aaron Lewis 4 1-2 9, Levi Jordan 4 3-6 12, Dylan Rich 5 3-3 13,. Bradley Harris 2 0-0 4, Jordan Fletcher 0 0-0 0, TOTALS: 25 12-20 65. 3-point goals: Good 2, Jordan 1
No. 5 CATHOLIC (21-4)
Payton Sturm 0 0-0 0, Jake Ullman 13 0-0 31, Ben Collie 1 0-0 2, Joe Padden 5 3-5 15, Brady Kurucz 2 2-2 6, Austin Luther 3 1-2 7, Jake Boice 0 0-0 0, Nick Roedersheimer 0 0-0 0, TOTALS: 24 6-9 61. 3-point goals: Ullman 5, Padden 2
Next game: Buffalo advances to state tournament next week in Charleston
Class A, Region I
At Dan Greenleaf Gymnasium
Wheeling Central 50,
St. Marys 48
WC 16 8 11 15 50
St. Marys 13 11 16 8 48
WHEELING CENTRAL (13-12)
Justin Hammers 0-4 0-0 0, David Park 7-17 3-4 21, Chase Harler 5-12 1-2 12, Brandon Wallace 4-6 0-0 8, Anthony Siebeda 1-1 0-0 2, Alonz o Manns 1-10-0 2, Brian Felton 0-1 0-0 0, Thomas Stanley 2-5 1-2 5, Michael Pleva 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS 20-49 5-8 50. 3-point goals: Park 4, Harler 1
ST. MARYS (19-5)
Andrew Cosper 1-15 4-4 6, Austin Bayless 6-18 4-7 16, Jordan Whitehair 4-10 3-4 12, Colby Brode 3-5 2-2 8, Connor Lancaster 2-5 0-0 4, Jessy Moore 1-2 0-0 2, Dylan Hupp 0-3 0-0 0. TOTALS 17-58 13-17 48. 3-point goals: Whitehair 1
Rebounds: WC 42 (Park 17); St. Marys 31 (Bayless 10, Lancaster 8). Assists: WC 9 (Harler 4); St. Marys 6 (Whitehair 3). Steals: WC 4; St. Marys 7. Turnovers: WC 20, St. Marys 8.
Next game: Wheeling Central at Class A state tournament, next week at Charleston Civic Center (time, day and opponent TBA).
Class AA Region I
at New Martinsville
Magnolia 96, Clay-Battelle 71
Clay-Battelle 13 16 18 24 - 71
Magnolia 30 16 23 27 -96
CLAY-BATTELLE
T. Haught 1 3-4 6, C. Bromage 6 1-2 17, D. Sine 1 0-0 3, T. Bragg 1 2-2 4, L. Opyoke 9 3-5 21, Z. Chisler 7 2-2 16, A. Joyce 2 0-0 4, TOTALS 27 11-15 71. 3-Point Goals: Haught 1, Bromage 4, Sine 1.
MAGNOLIA (21-4)
Preston Boswell 6 8-12 23, Kyle Elliott 4 1-2 11, St4ephen Rogalski 7 4-6 20, Mark Winters 8 3-5 21, Zach Wilhotie 7 3-4 17, Mike Winters 1 0-0 2, Sam Brookover 1 0-0 2, Spencer Campbell 0-0 0-0, Garrett Emch 0 0-0 0, Eric Smith 0 0-0 0, TOTALS 34 19-29 96. 3-Point Goals: Boswell 3, Elliott 2, Rogalski 2, Winters 2.
Next game: Magnolia meets Wheeling Central at 1 p.m. Wednesday in boys state tournament
W.Va. State High School
Basketball Tournament
at Charleston Civic Center
Opening Round
Class AAA
Wednesday
11:15 a.m.: Martinsburg vs. Huntington
7:15 p.m.: South Charleston vs. Morgantown
Thursday
11:15 a.m.: Woodrow Wilson vs. Hurricane
7:15 p.m.: Washington vs. Parkersburg South
Class AA
To Be Announced
Class A
Wednesday
9:30 a.m.: Charleston Catholic vs. Buffalo
1 p.m.: Magnolia vs. Wheeling Central
5:30 p.m.: Tug Valley vs. Notre Dame
9 p.m.: Tucker County vs. Greater Beckley
Ohio Division II District Final
At Ohio University
WARREN 61, VINTON COUNTY 46
Vinton County 9 17 4 16 - 46
Warren 19 7 17 18 - 61
VINTON COUNTY (19-5)
Alex Owings 1 0-0 3, Levi Borning 0 0-0 0, Tyler Walton 1 1-1 3, Matt Smallwood 0 0-0 0, Jordan Albright 1 1-2 3, Jordan Kidd 7 1-2 16, Per Smith 0 0-0 0, Max Ward 2 0-0 4, Sean Caudill 0 0-0 0, Bryce Owings 4 0-0 8, David Allen 1 0-0 2, Chase Wood 2 2-2 6, L.B. Remy 0 1-2 1. TOTALS: 19 6-9 46.
WARREN (24-1)
Evan Yabs 0 2-2 2, Adam Lang 2 0-0 4, Matt Drayer 0 0-0 0, Danny Pannell 1 0-0 2, Michael Hall 8 4-5 21, Evan French 6 1-1 16, Andrew Drayer 0 0-0 0, Reece Patton 3 3-4 9, Dylan Leffingwell 3 0-0 7, Aaron Mazurkiewicz 0 0-0 0, Blake Kidder 0 0-0 0, Corey Newlon 0 0-0 0, Marshall Church 0 0-0 0, Collin Welch 0 0-0 0, Andrew Henthorn 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23 10-12 61.
Team stats
Vinton County: Shooting: 19-55 (35 percent); 3-point goals: 2 (Kidder 1, Alex Owings 1); Rebounds: 19 (Remy 5); Assists: 5 (Smallwood 3); Steals: 10 (Albright 4, Kidd 4); Turnovers: 14.
Warren: Shooting: 23-44 (52 percent); 3-point goals: 5 (French 3, Hall 1, Leffingwell 1); Rebounds: 33 (French 12, Patton 6, Hall 5); Assists: 7 (French 3); Steals: 4; Turnovers: 22.
Ullman got Catholic going early with 12 first-quarter points. But Buffalo notched the final five points in the period to grab a 16-14 lead at the quarter break, only because Padden threw in an almost-halfcourt shot after intercepting an inbounds pass, but his shot came too late after the buzzer,
The second stanza saw the Crusaders move into the lead at 20-19 at the 4:44 mark, and were up 24-21 before a 12-1 Bison spurt in the final 2:21 of the half propelled Buffalo into a 33-25 advantage at intermission.
Down 10 a minute into the third quarter, Catholic rallied back to within one twice before Dylan Rich's three-point play and a Levi Jordan hoop with a second left gave Buffalo a 47-41 lead going to the fourth quarter.
After Ullman's 31 with five treys for PC - which loses no seniors off this year's team -was Padden with 15 points, but no one else scored in double figures for the Crusaders.
Isaiah Robinson paced the Bison attack with 15 points, followed by Rich with 13, and Laythem Good and Jordan with 12 each.
''Jake Ullman played like Jake Ullman does as offensively, he's pretty tough to stop,'' said Strcula. ''Jake and Joe (Padden) played a really good game, but the fact was we needed other guys to step up tonight in a different way. Everybody knows how good Jake and Joe are, but we needed to get a couple other guys to play better tonight and we didn't get that.''
