The Buckeye Valley boys basketball team looked poised to shoot itself out of its current slide in the early going, taking a 17-12 lead into the second quarter, but visiting Whitehall-Yearling turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and made more than enough plays down the stretch to secure a 60-55 MSL-Ohio win Tuesday night in Delaware.

An offensive rebound by Brendan Stalf led to a Cam Richardson three-pointer to break the scoring seal and give the Barons a quick 3-0 edge.

The Rams got back to even thanks to a couple free throws from Elijah Hughes, but BV’s Zane Melvin took over from there, scoring the next eight points — two buckets and four free throws — to push his team’s early advantage to 13-7 with 2:40 left in the first.

Whitehall stopped the bleeding with a three-point play by Semonte James, but Melvin found Dane Fisher for an open three and Noah Huss scored inside to make it a 17-12 game after one.

From there, it was pretty much a back-and-fourth affair.

The Rams started the second on a 6-0 spurt capped by a steal and layup from Hughes. Richardson got BV back on track with a three-pointer and, after two straight hoops from James, Markus Frijas hit a three to slice the deficit to one, 26-25, before the teams traded hoops to end the half.

Melvin’s hot hand extended into the third quarter as he hit a three to put the Barons up 30-28 with 6:01 left. Huss strung together back-to-back hoops to make it 36-34, but BV never could get much separation.

Richardson hit another three-pointer after the Rams’ Reggie Bagley scored inside, but Whitehall got back to even when Bagley hit a triple on the next trip down the floor.

Bagley, who finished with a game-best 26 points, hit another three at the end of the third to give the Rams a 42-41 lead heading into the fourth — a quarter they won 18-14 to smooth out the scoring summary.

Frijas hit a three-pointer to make it a four-point game, 55-51, with 57.4 seconds left, and Fisher scored inside to cut it to two with 20 seconds left after Whitehall split a pair of free throws, but that’s as close as it would get.

Melvin led BV with 15 points while Huss and Richardson finished with 14 and 13, respectively. Huss also snagged a team-best nine boards while Richardson and Melvin dished out four assists apiece.

Next up, Buckeye Valley will look to snap its four-game skid with a win against host Bexley Saturday night. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Delaware Hayes erupted for 16 points in the fourth quarter, but managed just a combined 18 in the previous three on the way to a 55-34 OCC-Capital Division setback at the hands of host Dublin Jerome Tuesday night in Dublin.

Samantha Toney led the Pacers with 12 points while Porter Barickman added seven and Adrionna Brown finished with five.