Parkway South Boys Still in Conference Race

If the Parkway South boys varsity basketball team hopes to win the Suburban West Conference title this season, then the Patriots need to win at Marquette on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Parkway South will enter Tuesday night’s game on a roll, having won five of its past six games. The Patriots escaped with a narrow 62-60 victory last Saturday at Kirkwood and are now 16-4, including a 2-1 league record. Marquette is 12-8 and 3-1. Each team is chasing first-place Oakville (12-8, 4-0).

Parkway South nearly let the game slip away late, and had to withstand a missed Kirkwood shot at the buzzer.

“We managed to let them get a look at the basket, and though we’d prefer if they had no look at the basket, we’ll take the result,” said Parkway South coach Mitch Stevens.

It was the leadership of junior guard Ryan McArthy, who combined a pair of 3-pointers with excellent shooting from the free-throw line, which enabled the Patriots to snare the win Saturday against the Pioneers.

The teams first managed to avoid a postponement, despite heavy overnight snowfall. Kirkwood played well early, jumping out to a 7-0 lead. Junior Clark Randall, who led the hosts with 22 points, made one of his four 3-pointers in the first period.

The Pioneers were in control for much of the opening quarter, and employed a full-court press to rattle the Patriots’ attempts to organize their offense. Parkway South junior Charlie Bakula made a 3-pointer, and added a field goal, to keep the Patriots in the contest early. The first quarter ended with Kirkwood leading, 17-10.

The Patriots opened the second quarter with an 11-2 run, but the game then deadlocked in a preview of what was to come in the second half. Both sides had a choppy tempo late in the first half and the lead exchanged hands multiple times until Randall hit another 3-pointer to calm his team down and send the hosts to the locker room ahead, 31-28.

Junior Myles Artis, who averages 11 points per game for the Pioneers, was held to only six on the afternoon, but did inspire Kirkwood with his aggressive play inside in the third quarter.

Overall, Kirkwood struggled to find a player who could step up and lead the team with the game on the line.

“We’re 10-10 on the season and you see spurts where we can really play and then there are other times where it’s a struggle. When we get pressure we’d like to see someone take charge and grab the ball so we can attack," said Kirkwood coach Bill Gunn.

“We struggled with that today; it hurt us.”

Parkway South, by contrast, saw McArthy, who led all scorers with 23 points, emerge as the go-to player for them late in the game. In the final quarter, McArthy did several little things well, including drawing a pushing foul just after he hit a 3-pointer to put Parkway South ahead. McArthy went to the line and made both free throws to stretch the Patriots lead to four points.

 McArthy made 11-of-12 from the free-throw line, including 7-for-8 in the fourth quarter. That proved to be the difference in the game.

The Patriots seemingly had the game under control, but Randall scored his fourth and final 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to make it 61-59. Junior Mark Waller missed a pair of free throws for Parkway South, and then after a foul at the other end, Pioneers senior Michael McDowell sunk one of two free-throw attempts to make it a one-point game.

On the subsequent inbounds play, Patriots sophomore Jordan Noyes was fouled and made one of his free throws, which then setup a final chance for Kirkwood to tie or win the game with six seconds left.

After getting the ball across half court, the Pioneers called timeout with 1.5 seconds remaining and drew up a plan. Lawrence Williams got the ball following the timeout and turned for a jumper, but the ball bounced off the rim and the Patriots claimed the victory.