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Crusaderettes roll over St. Marys, 71-39

Parkersburg Catholic’s Emma Gardner (50) lets go of a pass as St. Marys’ Ciara Bennett (right) and PCHS teammate Madison Ross (22) watch Thursday night. Catholic won 71-39. Photo by Steve Hemmelgarn.

PARKERSBURG — A 37-11 run in a span of 12:27 to close the first half propelled host Parkersburg Catholic into a commanding 44-16 margin en route to a 71-39 girls basketball victory over St. Marys Thursday night.

The win pushed PCHS out to a 4-0 record, while the loss left the visiting Blue Devils at 1-3 on the season.

The Crusaderettes were paced point-wise by Madeline Huffman with 17, followed by Aaliyah Brunny with 16, Olivia Ullman with 12, Madison Ross with 11 and Emma Pfeiffer with nine.

St. Marys was led in scoring by Kylie Wright with 16 points and Addie Furr with 14.

From 7-5 in Catholic’s favor in the first quarter, PCHS wound up the initial period on a 12-3 spurt to surge ahead 19-8. Huffman tossed in a trey, Ross converted a three-point play and Brunny netted two hoops in the run.

The second stanza was even more of the same for the Crusaderettes, who used a 25-8 quarter to expand its lead to 28 by halftime.

The seccond eight minutes saw Brunny pop in two treys in a row for a 28-11 lead at the 5:56 mark. Then in the last 2:18, it was PCHS coming down the hill to intermission as Huffman canned a 3-ball, Brunny bagged a bucket, Huffman sank a free throw and Pfeiffer banked in a basket with just 8.4 seconds remaining.

And in the second half, Catholic outscored St. Marys 16-12 in the third quarter and the two teams tied 11-11 in the fourth quarter.

“It was nice to get a little bit of a cushion tonight and then were able to keep building on it,” said PCHS head coach Marty Vierheller.

“But we’ve got a lot of tough competition out there yet. We’re not fooling ourselves thinking that we’re better than we are.”

For St. Marys head coach Howie Meeks, “Unfortunately, this is exactly what I expected tonight,” he said. “We still have a chance, though, to be a decent team and make some noise in our section by the end of the season. However, we’ve got to want to get better.”

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