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St. Marys girls sluggish in 52-37 win over Tyler

JOE ALBRIGHT The Marietta Times St. Marys’ Jenna Nichols, right, makes a move toward the basket during a high school basketball game against Tyler Consolidated Friday.

PARKERSBURG — Jordan Fox recorded a double-double of 22 points and 11 boards to help St. Marys get through a sluggish outing and emerge victorious 52-37 over visiting Tyler Consolidated Friday night at St. Marys High School.

“We were off eight or nine days after our opener against Wirt County,” said Blue Devils head man Howard Meeks. “We were off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the state championship game in Wheeling and then we came in and had a tired practice. We only practiced two days this week and really didn’t run hard.”

Missed free throws hurt both teams on the evening. St. Marys went 5 of 13 from the line in the opening half and 12 of 27 for the game while their opponent was 12 of 21 overall from the charity stripe.

It certainly looked Tyler Consolidated was ready to pull off an early season upset as they came out and attacked the basket for four quick points. Despite the TCHS quick start, a Jenna Nichols jumper kicked off a 12-4 run for St. Marys to put the home team in charge. The first-half scoring for the Blue Devils was senior dominated after Nichols scored 6, Whitney Jemison tacked on 4, and Jordan Fox scored on a pair of jumpers. Kylee Buzzard also scored two points on a pair of free throws tosses with 3:21 left in the opening half.

Buzzard scored 8 points on the evening for Meeks. Her two free throws were among just 12 makes out of 27 attempts on the night for SMHS.

The Silver Knights scored seven quick points at the beginning of the second quarter to shave the score down to a single digit. Four points off two free throws and a jumper from Aleah Black, followed by a trey from Peyton Kocher brought the score to 16-15. However, St. Marys responded and finished the quarter with a 10-7 edge to go into halftime up 26-22.

A Josey Jones make on the backend of two free throws evened the score at 30-all with about three minutes left in the third quarter. SMHS got the lead back heading into the final period of play as Fox scrapped and hustled hard during a four point mini-spurt. The Knights’ Joralda Rice and Amanda Reynolds combined for a quick three points to answer and bring Tyler within one heading into the final period.

Although Tyler managed to hang tough with St. Marys through three quarters, the fourth quarter was their downfall. Blue Devil senior Fox went to work and scored nine of her team’s 18 final period points to help St. Marys pull away for a wake-up 15 point win. Fox showed versatility from the field and scored from behind the arc, in the paint, at the free throw line, and on short jumpers to help her team up its record to 2-0.

Leading the way for the Knights on the evening was the senior Black. The forward scored 11 points and pulled down 7 boards for head coach Cathy Boggs. The defeat dropped the Knights to 0-2 on the season but both have come against good competition. St. Marys and Tyler’s opening foe Williamstown both played in regional final games last season and St. Marys came within one game of playing for a state championship.

TCHS will be back in action when it takes on Wirt County at 6 p.m. Monday in Elizabeth. Meanwhile, St. Marys will face Wheeling Central at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the I.O.G.A. Shootout at Glenville State College’s WACO Center.

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