BEALLSVILLE’S Hallie Bommer drives to the basket as Cameron’s Maelyn Canada defends during the first quarter of Saturday’s OVAC Class 1A championship game at Ohio University Eastern.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Beallsville only dressed seven players for its OVAC Class 1A championship game Saturday afternoon.

Two of their seven, however, were named Ashlie Louden and Ashley Howell, and that proved to be more than Cameron could handle inside a crowded and loud Ohio University Eastern Health and Physical Education Center.

By virtue of their 40-29 victory, the Blue Devils (19-3) successfully defended their small-school crown and are celebrating their eighth conference title in school history.

“It feels really good (to win) and I think it will sink in even more later,” Beallsville head coach Tori Jarrett said. “It’s really awesome to win back-to-back. Having only seven players is really hard, but the girls have stepped up and did what we’ve asked them to do.”

The difference proved to be a 15-0 run that stretched from the latter portion of the first quarter into the middle of the second quarter.

Fueling the run were the aforementioned combination of Louden and Howell, who scored all 12 of the Blue Devils’ second quarter points. It was when Louden got going in the first with a 3-pointer that ignited the spurt.

“Our defense was on during that spurt,” Jarrett said. “I thought we played excellent defense, especially in the first half. They couldn’t score in the halfcourt.”

Louden — the smooth lefty guard — poured in 11 of her game-high 20 points in the first half and went on to claim the John Howell Award as the game’s MVP. Louden finished the double-double with 10 rebounds.

Howell, meanwhile, was force on the interior with her size and length. She finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.

“Ashlie and Ashley are really talented players and will always be there for us, but the other girls have stepped up and played hard for us,” Jarrett continued.

With the Blue Devils’ bench trimmed to six after Hallie Bommer, who scored four early points, left with an injury, the Dragons began to cut into the lead.

Emma Whipkey hit a bonus goal in the middle of the third to get Cameron within eight at 25-17, which led to a Blue Devil time out. Lili Neely then got an inside bucket to go, but the momentum was short lived.

Louden got a bucket to go inside, making it an eight-point game again.

Beallsville eventually took a 32-22 lead into the fourth and the Dragons were never able to cut the deficit under 10.

Cameron was led in the scoring column by Maelyn Canada, who had 10. Lili Neely finished with nine.

“Defensively, we didn’t play our best game,” Cameron head coach Holly Pettit said. “We didn’t execute the way we practiced, but sometimes you have those days. Give the credit to Beallsville. They played a great game. We knew what to expect, but some of the things we worked on, we didnt’ execute, which is frustrating.”