UHRICHSVILLE -- Ready to "Rock".
The Barnesville High Shamrocks opened their Division III Sectional
Tournament game against Sandy Valley Thursday night with a 25-5 run en route to a 58-33 victory at Claymont High School.
Barnesville head coach Chris Pack was pleased with the overpowering style of play his team exhibited in the win.
"We came out and took care of business," Pack said. "Sandy Valley has played with the best of the Inter-Valley Conference, so beating them is a big confidence boost for us."
The swath of destruction began when Barnesville (11-7) exploited its significant height advantage and scored the first six points in the "paint"
When the smoke cleared at the close of the first frame, senior Dalton Smith had scored six, while Bryson Stephen and Preston Dornon had pumped in four apiece to give the 'Rocks a 16-3 edge.
Defense got the job done as well for Barnesville, as it held Sandy Valley (6-13) to a 0-of-13 shooting performance in the opening period.
The momentum carried over to the second quarter, as Barnesville continued its balanced scoring barrage to mount a 30-10 lead before halftime, getting four points apiece from Smith and Zach Dornon. Meanwhile, the Cardinals hit their first field goal of the game 9 a Corey Fisher layup 9 with 6:40 to play in the half.
To Sandy Valley's chagrin, the 'Rocks kept it rolling to open the second half as Smith came out of the gates with a "triple", followed by a three-pointer from Preston Dornon. Feeling the hot hand, Smith then banked in a long jumpshot and followed up with a layup to inflate the advantage to 40-10 before the 6:00 juncture in the third quarter.
Despite a few "treys" from Sandy Valley's Cody Welker and Zach Schlimm, the Cardinals never threatened to pare the gap below 20, and Barnesville managed to play keep-away the entire fourth quarter to advance to the Sectional co-finals.
While everything appeared smooth for the Shamrocks, a few concerns troubled Pack, like turnovers and free-throw shooting.
"We made a high-powered move today- we fired our free-throw shooting coach," the Barnesville mentor joked after his team managed to toss in just 9-of-28 (32 percent) of their foul shots.
"When we are focused, we are pretty hard to beat," Pack continued.
"Hopefully we have learned from our mistakes, because we are looking forward to having a chance to cut the nets down. We are capable of that."
Smith led the Shamrocks in nearly all stats, recording a game-high 19 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and a block. Tyler Fitzpatrick also put together a double-double, adding 12 points, 13 boards, and two swats; Preston Dornon poured in 12 points and dished out three assists; and Zach Dornon tallied five markers in the winning effort.
Sandy Valley was paced by Welker with 11 points and seven boards, while Travis Noble and Zach Mozden each added five points. Nick Williams directed the offense with a trio of assists.
Barnesville commanded the boards, raking in 50 rebounds to the Sandy Valley's 18. The Shamrocks admitted 20 turnovers as a result of their fast play, while the Cardinals surrendered 16 miscues.
The Rocks hit 22-of-51 (43 percent) of their field goal attempts, while Sandy Valley knocked down 12-of-51 (23 percent) of their shots from the floor.
NEXT -- Barnesville was scheduled to make up a regular season game with Shadyside on Tuesday
at home, and will face the winner of Monday's game between Ridgewood and Union Local in the D-III Sectional finals at Claymont next Saturday (March 6) at 7 p.m.
BARNESVILLE 58, SANDY VALLEY 33
Barnesville (11-7)
Dalton Smith 9-13 0-1 19, Preston Dornon 4-8 3-6 12, Zach Dornon 2-6 1-3 5,
Bryson Stephen 1-4 2-2 4, Cristian Bailey 0-3 0-4 0, A.J. Bohandy 0-4 2-4 2,
Tyler Fitzpatrick 6-12 0-6 12, Aaron Finnical 0-0 0-0 0, Dylan MacMillan 0-0
0-0 0, Luke Hunkler 0-0 1-2 1, Jessy McBride 0-1 0-0 0, Wesley Lewis 0-0 0-0
0. Totals 22-51 9-28 58.
Sandy Valley (6-13)
Zach Schlimm1-3 0-0 3, John Rice 0-1 0-0 0, Nick Williams 1-11 1-2 3, Taylor Dye 0-1 0-0 0, Zach Mozden 1-10 3-4 5, Chris Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Howie O'Neill 1-1 0-0 2, Cody Welker 4-8 0-0 11, Travis Noble 2-5 0-0 5, Mike Greer 0-2 0-0 0, Corey Fisher 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 12-51 4-6 33.
Barnesville 3 7 15 8 9 33
Sandy Valley 16 14 21 7 9 58
Three point goals -- BHS 2 (Smith, P. Dornon); SVHS 5 (Welker 2). Rebounds -- BHS 50 (Fitzpatrick 13, Smith 11); SVHS 18 (Welker 7). Assists -- BHS 13 (Smith 7); SVHS 7 (N. Williams 3). Steals -- BHS 8 (Smith 4 ); SVHS 9 (N. Williams 3, Noble 3). Blocked Shots -- BHS 5 (Stephen 2, Fitzpatrick 2); SVHS 1 (Fisher).
Fouls -- BHS 10; SVHS 23. Fouled Out -- none. Turnovers -- BHS 20; SVHS 16.
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