ON THE MOVE — Brooke’s Andrew Murdock drives against Wheeling Park defenders during Tuesday’s OVAC Class 5A semifinal. - Andrew Grimm

WELLSBURG — Wheeling Park did the little things that lead to victories and Brooke didn’t Tuesday night in an OVAC WVU Medicine Boys Basketball Class 5A semifinal inside the gymnasium at the Brooke County Wellness Center.

The third-seeded Patriots (7-7) made 17 of 18 free throws and only turned the ball over eight times, while the No. 2 Bruins went 7-for-12 from the charity stripe and charted 15 turnovers, 12 coming in the second half and seven in the final eight minutes.

“We’ve shot foul shots really well for the past few weeks,” veteran Wheeling Park head coach Michael Jebbia said. “I thought this was a great high school basketball game.”

Wheeling Park last advanced to the OVAC WVU Medicine Class 5A championship in 2024, losing to Morgantown. It will meet top-seeded Steubenville, which dismantled John Marshall, 91-64, Tuesday night inside the Crimson Center at Steubenville High School. The championship tilt is set for 10 a.m. Saturday.

“We missed some foul shots and they made theirs,” Brooke head coach Adam Shinsky said. “We had some crucial turnovers that really hurt.”

Leading the foul shooting parade was junior Jordan Beck-James who tied a program record with a perfect 10-for-10 effort. He finished with a team-best 16 points and was one of three Patriots in double figures.

“He was frustrated when he missed the alley-oop, but he hung in there and made the free throws,” Jebbia said of the 6-3 leaper. “Jordan is a good teammate and a solid player for us.”

After eight deadlocks in the first half, Wheeling Park rattled off the final seven points to take a 28-21 lead into the locker room, thanks in part to senior J.D. Williams who played buzzer-beater and won. Williams missed a shot from the foul line, but Mar Rouse grabbed the offensive rebound with time running down. He alertly found an open Williams who pushed Rouse’s pass towards the rim and found nothing but net.

“We’ll get back to work and try to figure things out,” Shinsky said. “I’m proud of my guys for not quitting when we were down by 11. We had our chances.”

Williams had 15 points in the first half which put him over the 1,000-point mark for his career, which started at East Richland Christian for a year before ending in three seasons with the Patriots.

“Give Brooke credit, they came out and clamped down on us in the second half,” Jebbia said. “We were stuck on 40 for what seemed like forever. We made a couple of plays to get us on top, but Brooke continued to play hard.”

Brooke pulled to within 40-37 at the end of three quarters and led 43-40 with a tick under 4 minutes remaining to play. However, Wheeling Park scored the next nine points to grab a 49-43 lead it would never relinquish.

Beck-James put the visitors ahead for good with a reverse layup off an assist from Kolten Whitmire with three minutes on the clock. The Bruins then turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions and Beck-James went strong to the bucket to make it a 46-43 lead. Whitmire hit a free throw and Josh Huffman added a pair of charity tosses to cap the game-changing run.

The Bruins closed the gap to 51-48 on a basket by Andrew Murdock with 29 seconds showing. Following a Wheeling Park turnover, Brooke had to call its final timeout when it couldn’t get the ball inbounds with 24.5 left. Then, the Bruins couldn’t inbound the ball once again and were guilty of a 5-second call.

Whitmire hit two free throws at the 21.9-second mark and Beck-James put the finishing touches on his outstanding night with two more eight ticks later.

In addition to Beck-James and Williams, Huffman scored 10 points and Whitmire eight.

Murdock led all scorers in the contest with 20 points. Grant Yost added 10 and Crosby Morris had eight.

Brooke won the battle on the boards, 34-25, as Yost pulled down 14 and Morris added nine. Jay Bordas had nine for the Patriots.