Photo by Kim North Martins Ferry’s Lindsey Best drives to the basket between Wheeling Park defenders Friday night during the seventh-annual Sam Andy Classic inside WesBanco arena.

WHEELING — Wheeling Park continued its winning ways Friday afternoon with a 59-44 girls’ basketball victory over Martins Ferry in the lid-lifter of the seventh-annual Sam Andy Classic basketball event inside WesBanco Arena.

The Patriots (3-1) snapped an early deadlock with a 10-0 run that the Purple Riders (3-3) could not recover from. The designated hosts led 15-6 after eight minutes and stretched their margin to 27-17 at the half as Duquesne University signee Alexis Bordas netted 12 of her game-high 32 points.

Martins Ferry missed its first five shots of the game and went 2-for-13 from the floor in the first quarter and finished 14 of 54.

“I thought our defense was better than our offense tonight. We made them work for everything,” Wheeling Park head coach Ryan Young said. “Giana (Chirpas) and Lindsey (Best) are two really good basketball players. They are really talented, but we worked very hard on the defensive end of the floor.”

“We came out scared to death and I just can’t figure that out,” Martins Ferry head coach Dave Reasbeck said. “I’ve been good (with our play) up until tonight. I’m not very happy. We should be better than what we are right now. We let one girl (Bordas) beat us.”

The third quarter was a turnover-fest as the two teams combined for 14 while scoring a total of 31 points.

“Offensively, we’ve got to take care of the basketball,” Young stressed. “The way we played tonight won’t get it done Tuesday when we play against Morgantown. We had 21 turnovers and that just can’t happen moving forward.”

“We talked about how we lost Lala (Woods) and having the best point guard to really not having a true point guard. We have to collectively figure things out and have kids step up wanting to handle the ball. It can’t all be Alexis. She needs help.”

Martins Ferry cut the deficit to eight, 50-42, with a little under five minutes to play, but Hailey Downer sandwiched a pair of inside baskets around a Bordas triple to bump the margin back to 55-42. After the Purple Riders scored, Bordas hit the final two buckets of the game.

“There are some easy shots that we’ve got to make,” Reasbeck noted. “In games like this, those shots have to go in. I’m starting to lose patience with them.

“Against River (last Saturday) we were 1-for-27 from three. We should be beyond that. We’re missing easy layups. We should be beyond that. We’ve got to figure out why.”

Chirpas led the Purple Riders with 15 points. Best added 12.

Maggie Hupp pulled down 11 rebounds and Kaylee Hunt added 10 as the Patriots held a 40-30 advantage off the glass. Bordas charted six rebounds, three assists and a trio of steals. Hunt also dished out four assists.

Both teams have stern tests next week as Martins Ferry travels south on Ohio 7 to Bellaire on Monday, while Wheeling Park welcomes Morgantown to the ‘Palace on the Hill’ a night later.