Photo by Kim North Barnesville’s Aiva Leasure (1) drives to the basket Thursday night during an Ohio Eastern District Division V Girls East 1 Sectional Tournament game at Barnesville High School. She was one of four Shamrocks in double digits with 11 points as they cruised to a 66-20 victory over Claymont.

BARNESVILLE — For the third consecutive season, Barnesville has advanced to the second round of the Ohio Eastern District Division V Girls East 1 Sectional Tournament.

The No. 8 seeded Shamrocks (11-12) rolled to a convincing, 66-20, decision over mistake-plagued Claymont, the No. 10 seed, thus spoiling the return to western Belmont County for Union Local grad Alli Delaney who finished her first year as the Mustangs head coach with the setback.

“We’ve struggled with turnovers and we’ve struggled with our shooting all season,” Delaney, a 1,000-point scorer for the Jets, said. “We’ve emphasized how important the summer is. We can’t make up all the skills at once in a matter of weeks. It’s definitely been a struggle this season.”

Barnesville’s full court pressure defense and sloppy ball handling resulted in a whopping 34 turnovers by Claymont (7-16).

“The girls have really worked hard in the offseason to get better and it’s starting to show,” Barnesville head coach Ty Leach said.

“The past few years we’ve exited the tournament early, but tonight wasn’t the case. For our two seniors to have the games they had tonight in their last game on this floor was tremendous. They’ve both had good careers” he said of Maddy Tyson and Zoey Fritter.

Tyson outscored the Mustangs herself with 23 tallies. She also charted half-a-dozen steals. Fritter added 11 points and knocked down a trio of treys.

The duo were joined in twin figures by Mallory Kiser with 12 off the bench and Aiva Leasure with 11. Leisure also recorded six steals.

For as good as the final score looked, Leach knows his team will have to play better on Wednesday against No. 3 Tuscarawas Valley at a site to be determined by OHSAA officials. Barnesville had 15 turnovers and missed numerous easy shots, going 24-for-60 from the floor.

“We were sloppy throughout the game,” he admitted. “I think we need to pass the ball more. We always challenge ourselves to get better. This program has always had trouble against the press, but we’ve started to handle it better. We also need to get better at finishing on the offensive end.”

Barnesville held a slim, 34-32, edge off the glass as Lydia Welch had a game-best 11. Lydia Fuchs and Caydence Stephen each had seven. Peyton Loudin finished with five.

Ava Edwards led Claymont with 11 points and half-a-dozen rebounds.

Barnesville scored the first seven points of the game, 15 of the first 18 and led 20-7 at the end of one quarter. After a Mustangs basket to start the second quarter, the Shamrocks reeled off 14 straight and 16 of 18 in taking a 36-12 lead at the half. Holding a 39-16 margin early in the third quarter, the hosts went on a 14-0 run to end the quarter and ended the game on a 27-4 spurt.

The OHSAA 35-point mercy rule kicked in with 3:42 left in the third quarter when Tyson tickled the twine with a pair of free throws. It never stopped running.