PARKERSBURG — When it all came down to it, defense won Parkersburg South’s 67-63 upset win over No. 1 University Wednesday night at Rod Oldham Athletic Center. Sure, the No. 3-ranked Patriots did outscore the visiting Hawks 20-8 in the fourth quarter, but there were at least four or five defensive gems to throttle University in the final period of play. “If you told me last year that these guys would have been good on defense, I would have told you you’re crazy,” said South head coach Mike Fallon, “because we were so good offensively, we struggled defensively. “Now it’s kind of flipped itself around and once we find our groove offensively, I think we’ve got a chance of being pretty good.” Pretty good — and more — was what the Patriots were Wednesday, but it took a big effort of their part. South, now 10-1 just like University, and the Hawks both banged away with four 3-point goals each in the opening period. The Patriots’ largest lead was 17-8 before the Hawks closed the gap to just 20-17 by the conclusion of the initial quarter. The second stanza, though, saw South manage only 11 points to University’s 23 with a balanced attack to grab a 40-31 advantage at the halftime break. And just 1:16 into the third quarter, the Patriots found themselves down 44-31, and it seemed like things were slipping away from them. “I told our guys that we had to keep on fighting, just two points at a time to get back into it,” said Fallon. “We just wanted to chip at it and get it down to 10 in the fourth quarter.” But that came earlier than later. An 8-0 South run, fueled by Brayden Mooney with a trey and rebound bucket, cut the deficit to 44-39 in the third. The Hawks responded late however with a 6-0 spurt before a Shane Snider 3-ball for South before the third period ended made it a 55-47 game heading to the fourth quarter. The Pats were not to be denied on this night however as right off the bat, Todd Burner canned a trey and Cole Plants tacked on a bucket at 7:10 as South inched closer at 55-52. Another Mooney trey at 6:29 and it was just a two-point game at 57-55. Then that defense started to come to the forefront for South, as Seth Fallon batted a ball away that led to a Plants basket to knot things up at 57 with 4:42 left. Plants, who led South with 21 points on the night, then converted a three-point play to push his team into a 60-59 lead with 3:15 to go, before Seth Fallon’s trey at 2:40 gave the Pats a 63-61 edge that became 66-61 with only 52.2 seconds remaining. At 66-63, Plants, who also blocked a shot at the other end, missed at the foul line at 16.8 seconds, but retrieved the ball and Snider sank a free throw at eight seconds to secure the victory. After Plants for South, Snider netted 12 points, Burner 11, Kerwyn Marshall nine and Mooney eight, while for University, Ethan Ridgeway tallied 26 points, followed by Kaden Metheny with 16. Despite the win over No. 1, for coach Fallon, “1, 2 and 3 right now doesn’t matter. We want to be in that (state tournament) group of eight come March. That’s more important than anything going on right now.”