Photo by Mike Hughes Martins Ferry’s Alex Rees rejects a shot attempt by Buckeye Local’s David Palmer.

CONNORVILLE–Martins Ferry’s Tuesday evening tussle with Buckeye Local was a back-and-forth, close-knit contest–for about a quarter.

It was then when the “wheels started to fall off” according to Panthers’ head coach Chris Heaton and what began as a strong start for Buckeye quickly devolved into a comfortable Purples Riders’ (2-1) victory.

Alex Reese scored a game-high 24 points and Martins Ferry outscored host Buckeye 38-12 during the middle two quarters en route to a convincing 73-38 victory at Connorville.

While the result was in little doubt midway through the third quarter, early on, a Purple Riders’ victory was anything but assured.

Buckeye started strong behind Ryder Kindberg-Colabelli, who scored eight of his team-high 10 points during a first quarter that saw the hosts outscore Ferry 19-17.

“I thought we came out and played well in that first quarter,” Heaton said as the Panthers dropped to 0-4 with a tough Marietta squad coming to town Friday. “The kids were flying all over and I felt we were able to convert against their press. But the wheels fell off and we struggled the rest of the way.”

Buckeye scored as many points in the first quarter as it did the next three combined.

A lot of that had to do with Ferry picking up the intensity, and sticking with its individual assignments on defense.

A near one-sided advantage on the offensive glass didn’t hurt either.

Purple shooters struggled to dial in early, especially from the perimeter. It mattered not. Led by Reese, Ferry grabbed 21 offensive rebounds, which led to numerous second-chance opportunities, and points.

In fact, on three separate occasions did a Ferry bucket come on the fourth shot attempt of the possession.

“We’re pretty athletic, so if we’re not having success on the glass, that means we aren’t (working) to go and get those second shots,” Martins Ferry head coach Derek Edwards said. “We started out cold from the perimeter and, at times, you don’t shoot very well on the road.”

Edwards took slight issue with his team’s effort on the opposite end of the floor early. But by the second quarter, Ferry had that part of its game figured out.

The Purple started the second quarter on a 15-0 before a bucket from Buckeye’s Grant Dombroski stopped the bleeding. That didn’t come until 2:05 left before the break and by that point, Ferry held a sizable 11-point advantage.

“It’s not even necessarily the score that bothered me, it was the way we were playing early,” Edwards said of the first quarter. “We weren’t being disciplined, but the team responded well and really from the second quarter on, we were playing a high level of basketball.”

Reese finished with 12 rebounds, three blocks and a pair of assists to go with his point total. Anthony Booth backed Reese with 11 points, Elijah Smith added 10 and Mason Redinger chipped in nine.

Gavyn Romanyak tallied eight for the Panthers, but battled foul trouble and without his presence in the paint, the rebounding totals began to sway heavily in the visitors’ favor.

“Gavyn got into some foul trouble that kind of gave them a bit more of an advantage and they killed us on the boards when he went out,” Heaton said. “But we’ve been working on boxing out and rebounding and we’ll continue to work on it. We have to do a better job rebounding because you can’t give a team like Ferry, with Reese in there, 5-6 looks at the bucket.”