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Dennis leads Warriors past Big Reds, 50-44

JORDAN HOLLAND The Marietta Times Warren’s Seth Dennis, left, brings the ball up the court as Parkersburg’s Braeden Mason defends during a high school boys basketball game Friday night in Vincent. Warren won, 50-44.

VINCENT — Seth Dennis got hot at the right times and Warren got defensive stops when it needed them in a 50-44 victory over Parkersburg High Friday night.

The game, which was Warren’s home opener and Parkersburg’s season opener, featured eight lead changes, the final one coming with six minutes left in the third quarter. The Big Reds (0-1) went up 24-22 on back-to-back baskets by Dylan Shaver, but the sophomore Dennis scored eight straight points to put the Warriors ahead 30-24.

PHS rallied to tie the game at 40-all with 4:08 left in left in the fourth quarter on Gavin Dudley’s layup, but Austin Barta’s 3 off Dennis’ assist and then two more buckets from Dennis put the Warriors on top for good.

“He stepped up very well,” Warren head coach Blane Maddox said of Dennis.

“I thought we had some players step up and give us some good minutes. Good team win. It feels good when a lot of guys get to play and get to contribute and we got to do that tonight.”

Parkersburg High took a 12-7 lead midway through the opening quarter on a Kionte Peacock 3-pointer for their largest lead of the game. Dennis’ jumper and Dylan Place’s bucket-and-one tied the game at 12-all. Braeden Mason’s free-throw gave the Big Reds a 15-14 lead after a quarter.

Warren’s defense stepped up in the second quarter, holding PHS to five points to help Warren take a 22-20 lead at halftime.

“We shored up the defense a little bit,” Maddox said. “Every game we’re just trying to get better and I thought our defense played better tonight.”

After falling behind 30-24 in the third, Jacob McKnight hit a pair from the charity stripe and Shaver, who led PHS with 13 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals, made a basket to get Parkersburg back within two.

Warren stretched its lead to five, 47-42, with 2:35 left. Needing a bucket, PHS was called for charges on back-to-back possessions. Free-throws by Barta and Clay Miller made it a three-possession game in Warren’s favor.

“I thought we were really careless with the ball,” said PHS boys coach Jeff Mennillo, whose team committed 19 turnovers. “Warren is a solid squad. Those kids had great spacing all night. They caused us some problems and created some driving lanes. They shot nothing but layups pretty much. There’s so many things we’ve got work on right now, but I think we’ll get a little better.”

Brandon Simoniette chipped in 11 points for Warren while Place and Barta added seven apiece. Warren was 21 for 40 (53 percent) from the floor.

“It was a low-scoring game,” Maddox said. “We didn’t run as much. We wanted to run some offense and better sets. Sometimes we’ve got to do that and we’re pretty good at that sometimes.”

Dudley scored 10 points while Peacock tallied six points and eight rebounds for PHS. The Big Reds were 15 for 46 (32 percent) shooting.

“We’ve had great shot selection all preseason and then we came out tonight and had terrible shot selection,” Mennillo said.

“We played hard. We didn’t play very smart, but we played very, very hard.”

Warren 50, Parkersburg 44

PHS 15 5 12 12 — 44

WHS 14 8 12 16 — 50

PARKERSBURG (0-1)

Jake Johnson 1 0-0 2; Jacob McKnight 1 2-2 5; Dylan Shaver 5 2-2 13; Kionte Peacock 2 0-0 6; Gavin Dudley 3 4-4 10; Braeden Mason 1 1-2 4; Sam Potts 2 0-0 4; Carter Stone 0 0-0 0; Jake Leisure 0 0-0 0; Noah Umpleby 0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 15 9-10 44; 3-point goals: McKnight 1, Shaver 1, Peacock 2, Mason 1

WARREN (2-1)

Brandon Simoniette 5 1-2 11; Bryce Knost 0 0-0 0; Austin Barta 2 1-2 7; Clay Miller 2 1-3 5; Seth Dennis 9 2-4 20; Dylan Place 3 1-1 7; Joel Chevalier 0 0- 0 0; Matt Goodman 0 0-0 0; Gabe Venham 0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 21 6-12 50; 3-point goals: Barta 2

Shooting: P: 15-46 (32.6%); W: 21-40 (52.5%); Rebounds: P: 28 (Peacock, Shaver 8); W: 17 (Miller 4); Assists: P: 8 (Shaver 6); W: 9 (Dennis 6); Steals: P: 5 (Shaver 3); W: 10 (Dennis 4, Barta 3); Blocks: P: 1; W: 0; Turnovers: P: 19; W: 15

JV: Warren 57, Parkersburg 53

Next games: Parkersburg at Logan (Ohio), 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18; Warren at Fort Frye, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

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