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Barnesville topples Edison

BARNESVILLE — At tournament time, a spark often comes from an under-the-radar type player.

Such was the case again Wednesday evening at Barnesville High School.

With the Shamrocks not shooting the ball well and in dire need of someone to hit a few shots, one would expect Kallee Dowler, Sarah Powell or Dulcie Christman to supply the lift.

Instead, head coach Jamie Carpenter looked at his daughter, Annie. She knocked down a trio of treys in a decisive third quarter spurt that proved to be enough to allow the Shamrocks to advance in the Division III tournament with a cherished 48-35 victory against invading Edison.

“We talked at halftime that we were a half step behind everything and not really into the game,” Jamie Carpenter said. “We had basically a week off, had a couple of practices that weren’t that great and finally we played like we had been playing last 12 games and we finally did that in the third.”

The Shamrocks (15-7) raced out to a 10-2 lead after one, but watched the Wildcats (9-14) close to within one at 17-16 at halftime. The game was tied at 19 in the early portion of the third quarter when Barnesville knocked down some shots against the Edison zone.

Carpenter cashed in a triple on back-to-back trips, which eventually freed up some space for Christman — the Shamrocks’ 6-4 pivot — to operate on the interior, which led to a bucket. Powell, who led all scorers in the game with 17, got a steal and layup to complete the spurt.

“We thought the first three or four minutes of the third quarter were going to be huge,” Edison head coach Ryan Powell said.

Indeed, coach. Just like that, the Shamrocks had rebuilt a 10-point lead.

“Those were big threes that my daughter hit,” Carpenter said. “She wasn’t even looking to shoot in the first half, so I asked her at halftime, ‘are you going to make me a shot tonight?’ She said, ‘yeah, dad.’ And she did. Those were big ones.”

As Edison appeared to be ready to go on a run of its own, Carpenter was left wide open once again from behind the arc. After that bonus goal pushed the lead back to 11, the Wildcats only got the deficit under 10 once more and that came in the third.

“I thought we did a good job of salting the game away, especially when it looked like Edison might be ready to get on a run,” Carpenter continued.

The Barnesville lead swelled to as many as 15 in the fourth.

“They have two great guards and they’re tough when they get a lead in the fourth quarter,” Powell said. “They handle the ball well and they spread you out. We don’t have the skill yet in our program. We hang our hat on our defense. We need to work in the summer on the skill part of it because we didn’t score the ball well enough.”

The Wildcats produced only one double-figure scorer. Junior Kayla Huff had 15 points. Senior Sarah Anderson had nine, all of which came from behind the arc, in top support.

The Shamrocks took pretty good care of the ball, committing just 11 turnovers, which was three less than the Wildcats. Christman narrowly missed a triple-double. She had 12 rebounds and six blocks to go along with her 11 points.

Next up for Barnesville is a third meeting with Buckeye Trail. The Warriors dispatched West Muskingum, 51-45, and will host the Shamrocks on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Barnesville 48, Edison 35

Edison 2 14 9 10 – 35

Barnesville 10 7 19 12 – 48

EDISON: Fankhauser 3 1-2 7; Anderson 3 0-0 9; Kryder 0 0-0 0; Huff 6 3-3 15; Springer 1 2-2 4; Ferralli 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 6-7 35. 3-pointers: Anderson 3.

BARNESVILLE: Dowler 3 3-4 9; Christman 5 1-3 11; Powell 6 2-2 17; Carpenter 3 2-2 11; Starr 0 0-0 0; MacMillan 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 8-11 48. 3-pointers: Powell 3, Carpenter 3.

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