By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Ordinarily a 39-point loss has very little in the way of positives.
And the fact is that Parkersburg Catholic hung a 39-point loss on Calhoun County Monday night in Parkersburg when it took a 97-58 victory.
But there are extenuating circumstances which make this loss extraordinary for the losing team because of the positives for the losing team.
First off is PCHS' standing. The Crusaders are ranked fourth among Class A schools in West Virginia and Calhoun scored 58 points against them.
Then there was the outrageous outside shooting of the Crusaders who had 16 three-point goals. That's 48 points from beyond the arc.
Then there was the awesome shooting of Belpre, Ohio, senior transfer Jake Ullman who went over the 1,000-point mark for his career in the first half of the game. Ullman scored 35 points, 18 of which came on the six three-pointers he hit.
But Ullman was nearly matched by Calhoun sophomore Tyler Gerwig. While Ullman had 13 field goals Gerwig had 10, all of which were of the two-point variety while adding six from the free throw line.
Calhoun also had a solid, if not high scoring, game from junior leader Ryan Slider. While Slider was held to just six points he came away with 10 rebounds, eight assists, three steals and two blocked shots. All this while getting extremely tight coverage from the Crusaders.
The Red Devils also got strong support from its young players as sophomore Sam Brady came off the bench and had seven points and five rebounds while freshman Ethyn Miller had three points while filling in for Slider at the point. Add to that sophomore Lucas Wilson getting three points while playing end-to-end defense all over the court for the Red Devils.
Brady's night was made a little more impressive by the fact that he played just one quarter of the junior varsity game (a 64-23 PCHS victory) and still led the team with 10 points and six rebounds giving him 17 points and 11 rebounds for the evening.
The Red Devils also got some solid play from its seniors as Trenton Phillips and Ricky Hall had six apiece while Luke Moore scored one and Derek Dawson although not scoring provided valuable defensive minutes off the bench.
Calhoun opened the game and closed the game the same way - with a driving shot by Gerwig.
Gerwig's game-opening shot gave Calhoun a 2-0 lead and his closing shot set the final margin after Calhoun run the clock down to zero to keep the Crusaders from having a chance at the 100-point mark.
After Gerwig scored to give Calhoun the lead at the beginning of the game the Crusaders rose the shooting of Ullman (16 points) to a 29-11 first quarter lead.
Calhoun got its inside game going in the second period as Gerwig scored 14 of the team's 23 points in what proved to be the closest quarter of the night as PCHS enjoyed a 27-23 edge for a 56-34 halftime lead.
The Crusaders broke things open in the third quarter with a long range barrage that included seven three-point shots for a 25-14 edge and 81-48 margin heading into the final period.
In the fourth PCHS had a 16-10 advantage to set the final score.
Ullman had some support for PCHS, 19-3, as Carson Weyer came off the bench to hit four threes and score 16. Payton Sturm added 12, Joe Padden 10, Cody Offenberger nine, Austin Luther six, Nick Roedersheimer four, Ben Collie three and Jake Boice two.
Calhoun 2-20 returns to action Saturday in sectional tournament action at Ritchie County High School. The Red Devils are tentatively scheduled to play Williamstown at 7:30 p.m. In the first game of the evening Doddridge is scheduled to play Wirt starting at 6 p.m.
In the first game Monday night the PCHS junior varsity jumped to a 12-2 lead after one quarter and ran it out to 35-6 at halftime.
Calhoun rallied in the third with a 14-10 edge but was outscored 19-9 in the final quarter.
Game honors went to Ryan Schriner with 12. Gary Casto had 11 and Andrew Hill 10 to lead the Crusaders.
Nick Watkins scored five to back Brady. He was joined by Luke Sheldon with four and Miller and Dawson with two apiece. | 
