Williamstown’s Payton Bunch, right, is guarded by St. Marys’ Shane Moran during Monday’s high school boys basketball game at St. Marys High School. The top-ranked Yellowjackets defeated the Blue Devils 87-52 and remained unbeaten at 19-0. (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

ST. MARYS — Minor adjustments. Major production.

A barrage of 3-pointers during Williamstown’s 34-point third quarter output and the Yellowjackets’ defensive pressure took their toll on St. Marys Monday night.

No. 1 ranked Williamstown remained unbeaten at 19-0 after defeating the Blue Devils 87-52 behind 17 points apiece from Parker Schramm and Jayden Bryant, and another 16 points from Alex Irvin.

“I think our pressure wore them down a little bit there in the third quarter,” Williamstown coach Scott Sauro said. “I thought St. Marys did a really nice job early in the game handling the pressure. They were playing with a lot of emotion. They are tough kids and they played that way.

“We made a couple of little adjustments in the third quarter on the press and I do think that helped. And the shots started falling. That’s the No. 1 thing. If you can hit some shots, that covers up for a lot of errors.”

Trailing 6-0 three minutes into the game and a timemout on the floor, St. Marys put itself in an even bigger hole when Blue Devils head coach Mark Barnhart was hit with two technical fouls. A third technical foul, this one assessed to the Blue Devil bench, during that same break resulted in six free throw attempts for Schramm, who converted five and put the Yellowjackets in front 11-0.

“They are passionate coaches and doing everything they can to get their kids the best chance to win,” Sauro said. “All of us have been in that situation where we are angry about a call or something like that.

“But those guys at St. Marys are terrific coaches. They won the conference last year and Mark Barnhart was coach of the year for a reason.”

The gap reached as many as 16 points in the first half, but St. Marys plugged away behind the post play of 6-foot-8 senior Luke Powell, who scored seven of his team’s final nine points before intermission. With one minute remaining in the second quarter, the Yellowjacket lead had dwindled to nine at 33-24.

Irvin’s 3-point play followed by Lynken Joy’s putback just prior to the sound the buzzer gave Williamstown a 38-24 edge at intermission.

“At halftime, I liked where we were playing on the road with a lead in a hostile environment,” Sauro said. “We weren’t perfect by any stretch, but I thought we put ourselves in a decent position. We just needed to change a few things with our pressure, which our kids responded to really well.”

Williamstown, which shot 36% (12-of-33) in the first half and made an uncharacteristic two 3-pointers, found the mark from the perimeter from moment the third quarter began. Schramm, who made just one bucket before the break, knocked down consecutive 3-pointers to start the ball rolling and his teammates followed suit.

“I never want Parker to be clouded on whether he should shoot or not,” Sauro said. “He has earned the right to be a really good shooter and take difficult shots. They are not always going to fall. Shooting is fickle, but we trust him and know eventually he will hit them.”

Bryant came off the bench to contribute 13 points in the quarter behind three 3-pointers. Irvin added another for a total of six during the period.. St. Marys, which committed a combined five turnovers in the first two quarters, had its share of issues trying to solve the Yellowjacket pressure and turned the ball over seven times in the third quarter alone.

During one sequence lasting a whole 15-plus seconds, Williamstown recorded back-to-back steals as part of an 8-0 surge. By the two-minute mark, the lead had ballooned to 68-36.

Both teams reached deep into their bench for the better part of the fourth quarter.

Powell finished with 28 points, while Ryan Kent added 10 points for the eighth-ranked Blue Devils (13-5), who had their four-game winning streak snapped.

“I thought the kids played hard,” St. Marys assistant coach Larry Johnson said “Obviously, we got down early, but I was happy how they battled back and got the score to what it was by halftime.

“Williamstown has the shooters. We handled their pressure in the first half, but in the second half it got to us.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com