ST. MARYS - Teams looking to defeat preseason No. 3 ranked St. Marys understand they will have to defend the Blue Devils' 'Twin Towers'-senior Audra Clark and junior Kendra Walker.
But, after Saturday's performances in St. Marys' 86-44 rout of Ritchie County, opposing coaches will need to add the names of Abby Fetty and Ashley Hall to their lists of players they will have to stop if they want to get past the defending Little Kanawha Conference champions.
"Tonight was a good game for us to learn how to move the ball," said St. Marys head coach Howard Meeks. "We learned tonight that when teams surround our big players that we have to trust each other enough to let them shoot the ball."
And, shoot the ball purple and gold did as Hall, only a freshman, tallied a career-high 17 points while Fetty also came off the St. Marys bench to bucket 15 points as the Blue Devils remained unbeaten on the season (3-0) with a home encounter with Williamstown slated for next Friday night.
Ritchie County, which dropped to 1-2, was paced by senior Tristin Toman with 16 points and Vanessa Tallman's 10.
The game was nip-and-tuck for the first two minutes as the Rebels' Toman tallied her team's first seven points to give the visitors a one-point, 7-6, advantage with 6:36 showing on the first quarter clock.
A lay-in by Dani Moore from a Shanley Glover pass, however, would thrust the hosts into the lead for good, 8-7, 21 seconds later and propel them on a 16-0 run before a Toman triple ended the spurt with 54 ticks left on the clock.
The damage had been done as St. Marys built a 23-10 lead after the first eight minutes of play and continued to expand that margin to 21, 42-21, as the teams went to the locker rooms at the intermission.
Joining Hall and Fetty in double figures were Clark and Walker.
Clark tallied a game-high 18 points and hauled down 11 rebounds while Walker chipped in with 14 points and a game-high 13 caroms.
Magnolia 70, Beallsville 66 (OT)
NEW MARTINSVILLE - Freshman Grace Berisford scored a career-high 22 points and Mallory Chapman tallied the final four points of the game here Saturday afternoon as host Magnolia nipped Beallsville, 70-66, in overtime.
Katie Blatt flirted with a triple-double for the 2-2 Blue Eagles, finishing with eight points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. She also added five steals.
Chapman dropped in 20 points to go along with eight caroms and six assists while Kiera Standiford tossed in 15 points.
The Blue Devils had a quartet of double figure scoring efforts, led by Mikaela Headley's game-high 21 markers.
Wood County Christian 50,
Coshocton 13
WILLIAMSTOWN - Hannah Lord had 10 points and Heather Lord scored nine as host Wood County Christian blew past Coshocton, 50-13, on Saturday.
The Wildcats, now 2-1 with a home game on Monday versus Belpre, also received four points and a game-high 12 rebounds from Adria Herridge.
