The Buckeye Valley girls basketball team started fast and never looked back, rolling to a 74-40 win over host Linden McKinley to start the season Tuesday night in Columbus.

“I thought we applied what we’ve been working on for the last month and a half pretty well,” first-year Baron coach Travis Stout said. “It was also nice to be able to get everyone in and get some confidence, which is big this time of year.”

Buckeye Valley (1-0) led 19-9 after the first quarter and 39-22 by the break. BV outscored Linden McKinley 25-11 in the third and 10-7 in the fourth to smooth out the scoring summary.

Alaina Radcliffe led a balanced Baron attack with 17 points. Sophomore Dani Grether chipped in 15 off the bench despite battling foul trouble, Lisa Leienberger added 12, Hannah Cowan finished with 11 and Morgan Scowden closed with nine in the win.

Leienberger also got it done on the defensive end, anchoring a BV unit that had its way with the hosts from start to finish. She held Linden McKinley’s best player to just nine points.

Olentangy Liberty 51, Hilliard Bradley 43

Teegan Pifher poured in a game-best 18 points and Emma Humenay hit a trio of triples on the way to 13 points to lead the Olentangy Liberty girls basketball team to a season-opening win over host Hilliard Bradley Tuesday night.

The Patriots (1-0) raced out to a 12-5 lead by the end of the first quarter. The Jaguars cut into their deficit by a point in the second, but couldn’t get much closer.

Delaware Hayes 39, Patriot Prep 28

The future was on display in the Pacers’ season-opening win over host Patriot Prep as a trio of freshmen combined to score 28 of Hayes’ (1-0) 39 points.

Jordan Lantz had 12 points in the win while fellow freshmen Alexis Amabile and Alyssa Griner had 10 and six points, respectively.

Big Walnut 50, Marion Harding 33

Katie Cochran opened the season in style, netting a game-best 26 points to go with 10 rebounds and four steals to lead the Golden Eagles to a non-league win over the visiting Presidents Tuesday night in Sunbury.

Big Walnut (1-0) built its lead in the first half, outscoring Harding 15-11 in the first quarter and 13-9 in the second en route to a 28-20 halftime lead … a lead it only added to as the game wore on.

Erin Boehm backed Cochran with a solid showing, finishing with nine points, five rebounds and five assists, and Paige Norman added seven points of her own.

Olentangy 49, River Valley 32

Grace Pennington (13), Molly Delaney (12) and Lauren Biehl (12) each finished in double figures to lead the Braves to a win over the Vikings in Tuesday’s home opener.

Olentangy (2-1) outscored River Valley in all four quarters, including 14-8 in the second to build a 10-point halftime lead.