BARNESVILLE — Matt Johnson could sense it coming.

And then after just a few minutes of Tuesday’s Division III sectional tournament opener against Bellaire, the Barnesville head coach’s fear had become a reality.

His Shamrocks — just a game removed from winning the school’s first OVAC boys hoop title — had come out flat. And Bellaire was taking advantage.

A 30-second timeout was called. Johnson spoke his peace and the Shamrocks responded with a 22-0 run that stretched into the second quarter and eventually led to a convincing 77-37 victory against the Big Reds.

“It was kind of to be expected, but (being flat in a tournament game) is not acceptable,” Johnson said. “Everyone has been patting our guys on the back for the last few weeks and that’s fine because (the OVAC) is a huge accomplishment, but once we got their focus, I thought our defense led to a lot of offense.”

Indeed.

The Shamrocks, which have been hanging their hat much of the season on their full-court pressure — turned up the heat on the Big Reds (4-19). All told, Bellaire was charted for 15, first-half turnovers, many of which led to transition opportunities on which Barnesville capitalized.

“Our three keys coming into the game were turnovers, transition and rebounding,” Bellaire coach Ben Doyle said. “We started off OK, but then the turnovers started and the transition happened and we weren’t getting boards. And our three keys were key.”

The Shamrocks led 20-8 after the one and the margin swelled to 50-21 at the half. Barnesville used an 11-2 spurt in the third to push its lead past the 35-point barrier, which triggers the OHSAA mercy rule. The remainder of the half was played under that format.

Barnesville was led by junior standout Luke Powell. Despite not playing one second of the fourth and sitting for a large portion of the second, scored 19 points to lead everyone. He also had six rebounds, three assists and a like number of steals.

Sophomore Ayden Hannahs was solid again in support with 15. Senior Tate Dowler added eight points, five boards and four steals.

All told, Barnesville had 11 players crack the scoring column.

“I thought we shared the ball well and our support guys have really played well down the stretch (of the season),” Johnson said. “Luke is going to give us what he gives us every night, but when we can get two or more other guys in double figures, we like our chances.”

Bellaire was led by sophomore David Zwack, who scored 11. Trenton Wilson added eight points and six rebounds.

“We had a lot of kids learn by trial by fire this season,” Doyle said. “I saw growth in some of our kids, individually. I am not sure we all came together, except for a couple of games here and there.”

The Shamrocks — now 15-8 — are fully aware that they’ll need to be much sharper from the outset Friday when they trek to Sugarcreek to take on Garaway.

“Garaway is a solid team,” Johnson said. “We’re a team that doesn’t really work on things that other teams do, but instead, we work on what we do. We’re not going to change anything (Friday). We’re going to play the way we play.”