The Big Walnut girls basketball team played one of its best first quarters of the season, jumping out to a 16-2 lead it parlayed into a 51-30 OCC-Capital Division win over visiting Westerville North Friday night in Sunbury.
Not a bad way for the Golden Eagles, who won their sixth straight game, to open their brand new gym in their brand new high school.
Andie Stewart scored the first-ever hoop on the new court, breaking the scoring seal less than a minute into the action. Teagan Ng then made it 4-0 with a put-back bucket and scored again off a feed from Abbey Coleman in transition, extending the BW edge to 6-0 and forcing a North timeout.
The Eagles’ Jordan Walters buried a three out of the brief break and Mel Sena made it 12-0 with a three-point play the hard way on the next trip down the floor.
The Warriors’ Malaya Collins got her team on the board with a hoop with less than two minutes left in the first, but a bucket off an offensive rebound from Maddy Stumpf and transition hoop following a steal from Coleman pushed the Big Walnut advantage to 16-2 heading into the second quarter.
North chipped away a bit from there, getting threes from Emoni Finch and Kayla Curry-Brown, but still trailed by double-digits, 24-14, at the half. The Eagles then won the third 16-9 and the fourth 11-7 to smooth out the scoring summary.
Coleman led a balanced BW attack with 12 points while Ng finished with 10, Walters had nine and Stewart and Sena finished with six apiece.
North got a team-best 14 points from Finch.
Next up, Big Walnut will look for its seventh consecutive win when it travels to Dublin to take on Scioto Tuesday night at 7 p.m. North, which has now lost five of its last six, will also play Tuesday, looking to bounce back against host Worthington Kilbourne.
Delaware Hayes 46, Dublin Scioto 24
Chloe Jeffers made all 10 of her free throws on the way to a 15-point night as the Pacers knocked off the host Irish in league play Friday night in Dublin.
Samantha Toney backed Jeffers with 13 points while Porter Barickman added eight for Hayes, which doubled up Scioto 28-14 in the second half to pull away.
Olentangy Liberty 50, Hilliard Davidson 21
Gigi Bower poured in 15 points and Jordan Rich added nine points and a team-leading five steals to lift the Patriots to a convincing league win over the visiting Wildcats Friday night in Powell.
Emory Trout led Davidson with 11 points in the setback.
Delaware Christian 51, Madison Christian 30
Katie Neuhart nearly outscored visiting Madison Christian herself, pouring in a game-best 27 points to lead DCS to a lopsided Mid-Ohio Christian Athletic League win Friday night in Delaware.
Addy Beard was also steady in the win, finishing with 18 points.
Marysville 36, Olentangy Berlin 22
The Bears outscored the visiting Monarchs in the second half, but managed just four points in the first half en route to an OCC setback Friday night in Delaware.
Marysville’s JoJo Eberhart led all scorers with 14 points while Deanara Mbouge had a team-high eight for Berlin.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Buckeye Valley 66, Bexley 44; Dublin Jerome 55, Olentangy 45; Olentangy Liberty 48, Hilliard Davidson 45; Marysville 63, Olentangy Berlin 62.
