Gallery by Heather Belcher
Wheeling Park 73, Beckley 53
Class AAAA No. 1 Wheeling Park took a solid upset punch from Beckley Saturday, but the top-ranked Patriots eventually proved to be too much at the New River CTC Tournament inside the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
Using a 10-0 spurt to end the third quarter, Park broke open a close game and rolled to a 73-53 win.
The Patriots opened a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but as was the case for most of the game, the Flying Eagles came fighting back.
A corner 3-ball from Maddie Belcher and a layup from Lataja Creasey cut the lead back to 22-19. Park responded with back-to-back scores before Belcher nailed her second triple of the quarter.
Trailing by six points with 3:42 until halftime, Josie Cross’ score inside was followed by a nice spin move in the lane by Donya Burton to slice the lead to two points.
A runner from Jillian Huffman and a 3-pointer from Alexis Bordas stemmed the tide and Park led 35-29 at the half.
The Flying Eagles twice cut the lead to three points in the third quarter, but with 2:59 to go, the Patriots shifted into overdrive and separated the game.
Trailing by five with two minutes to play, Beckley failed to secure four straight rebounds and a kick-out 3-ball by Natalie Daugherty seemed to be the spark the Patriots needed.
A quick Beckley turnover led to another long bomb from LaLa Woods who scored a game-high 23 points and Park was rolling.
When the third quarter horn sounded, the run was 10 and Park led by 15 points.
The visitors out rebounded the home team 41-30 with 20 rebounds coming on the offensive end. Park took 72 shots, while the Flying Eagles managed just 43 and turned the ball over 21 times.
Bordas followed Woods with 18 points and Huffman had 10. Dillon led Beckley with 17, while Donya Burton scored 12 and had eight rebounds.
Beckley (4-5) hosts Capital Tuesday.
Spring Valley 60, University 58
Senior Hallie Bailey hit a runner in the lane with 3.6 seconds to play and swiped the ensuing in-bounds pass to lift No. 5 Spring Valley past No. 6 University 60-58 in the New- River CTC Tournament in Beckley.
The game winner was the only points of the day for the Timberwolves’ points guard who handed out nine assists, had three steals and three rebounds in the win.
Brooklyn Ellis led Spring Valley with 23 points and five rebounds. Dria Parker and Haleigh Crum had 15 points apiece and both players made three long balls.
The Hawks held the rebounding edge 37-28 led sophomore Lyla Byers with nine boards. Byers also led University 16 points including five 3-pointers.
Emily Sharkey added 15 for the Hawks, while Hannah Stemple and Julia Maisel scored eight points each..
