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Warren, led by Kurt Taylor’s 17, blows by Belpre, 73-39

Photo by Jay W. Bennett Warren’s Joel Chevalier, right, guards Belpre’s Evan Wells during a high school boys basketball game Tuesday night in Vincent. Warren won, 73-39.

VINCENT — Warren used a 10-2 run to open the second quarter and a 12-2 spurt coming out of halftime here Tuesday night as the host Warriors cruised past Belpre, 73-39.

Kurt Taylor pumped in a game-high 17 points and added nine caroms, Jake Baumgard finished with 16 points, Seth Dennis tallied a dozen, Joel Chevalier had eight markers and Brayden Sallee chipped in six points and a game-high 10 rebounds as the Warrior starters exited the game with 5:59 left in the fourth holding a 65-32 advantage.

“That’s a tough basketball team right there,” admitted Golden Eagle head coach Tyler Leasure, whose 1-2 squad was outscored 46-19 in the middle two quarters and returns to action Friday when Federal Hocking invades.

Belpre connected on 6 of 9 field goals in the opening stanza and had three leads. Ashton Yeater, who joined Connor Baker with seven points, hit a 3 to open the scoring via a Brady Shriver assist. BHS also led 9-7 following a Yeater lay-in, 11-7 when Shriver scored on an inbound pass via an Evan Wells dime and finally at 13-11 when Wells scored inside.

However, the 2-0 Warriors of head man Blane Maddox were able to even things at 13-all when Dennis Pettey, who went 4 of 4 from the foul line in the third, fed Sallee for a hoop.

Warren’s pressure defense resulted in five Golden Eagle turnovers in the second quarter and 23 for the game. The first came early in the second when Dennis took a charge on Wells. Baumgard’s field goal was followed by a Gavin Ott basket and when Dennis got a runner to go it was 19-13. Despite a hoop by Baker, the Warriors got two more lay-ins from Dennis and a free throw from Baumgard to forge ahead 24-15 with 4:11 left in the half.

“They came out in the first quarter and hit some shots,” said coach Maddox, whose team plays host Friday to rival Marietta. “We knew they were going to come out and compete, but we settled down. Second quarter we took care of what we wanted to take care of and we continued second half. I thought we maintained our composure nice.

“Tonight, I thought Kurt had a good game all the way around again. He was solid for us and I just thought it was a good team effort. We’re a team of runs and we always have been. We can wear a lot of people down. Josh Welch came back for his first game. He’s been off for a long time. It’s nice to get everybody in, but we got to play our starters some for conditioning and we got some tough games coming up.”

A field goal by Tucker Liston with 1:50 to go cut the deficit to 26-19, but Warren scored eight of the final 10 points and led 34-21 at the break. Chevalier had two buckets, Dennis one and Taylor canned a pair of foul shots. Belpre, which hit just 4 of 18 from the field in the second, finally stopped Warren’s 8-0 spurt thanks to a Dylan Cox deuce.

Seven turnovers didn’t help the Golden Eagle cause in the third. The 12-2 run was started by a Baumgard score in the paint. Taylor followed with a top of the key 3 and later added a putback. Sallee had the other two field goals. It was a Sallee steal and assist to Taylor for a layup which allowed the hosts to hold a commanding 59-32 lead after three.

The Warrior reserves added eight points down the stretch, four by Trent Dowler, two by Brennan Perdue and one field goal from Trent Taylor, who had a fourth-quarter jam in the junior varsity tilt.

Golden Eagle Matthew Deems converted two free throws to set the final score.

Shriver joined Cody Daugherty, who was in first-half foul trouble, with six points.

Wells and Liston grabbed seven boards apiece while Shriver had six.

Dennis had a game-high four assists while Chevalier and Sallee recorded a trio of steals each.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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