T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY BARNESVILLE SENIOR Kason Powell (right) and Jeremy Hunkler celebrate after Powell recorded his 37th point of the night, which gave him 1,000 points in his career with the Shamrocks. He became just the fifth boys player in school history to reach the milestone. Hunkler added 10 points and the Shamrocks rolled past Buckeye Local, 73-38.

BARNESVILLE – The Barnesville basketball team treated its large turnout of fans to a little bit of everything on Thursday.

The evening started with an impressive tribute to military personnel, included two personal milestones and was capped with a 73-38 rout of invading Buckeye Local.

Both of the individual milestones helped lead to the end result.

Senior standout Kason Powell came into the game needing 37 points for 1,000 in his career. He got a layup in the early moments of the fourth quarter, landing him on exactly that number and making him the fifth player in school history to reach the milestone and, ironically, the third in his family – joining cousin Luke and uncle Matt.

“KP got off early, so we knew he’d have a shot at (getting the 37),” Barnesville head coach Johnny Hines said. “The boys decided they were going to feed Kason and it worked out well.”

According to Hines, the Shamrock players knew how many Powell needed coming into the game, but Powell hadn’t scored more than 30 since the season opener against Buckeye Trail.

In the first half, senior point guard Colton Hines etched his name into the Shamrock record books when he found Powell for a 3-pointer that gave him his 291st career assist. The old mark was held by Jon Miller.

On top of those achievements, the Shamrocks used a recipe that was good to them early in the season and that included knocking down the 3-point shot. All told, Barnesville cashed in on 12 shots from behind the arc, half of which came from Powell.

“The bottom line is when the ball goes in the hole, these guys really feed off of each other,” Coach Hines said. “We have to find a better way to get it done when the ball isn’t going in from 3, but we’re continuing to work on that.”

In the recipe for success, the Shamrocks added a few new wrinkles, too. Most noticeably was a full-court man pressure that they’d been working on and are finally getting to the point where it works to their advantage.

“This was the best we’ve played defensively all season,” Hines said. “The press is something we’ve been working on, but we’re just now getting pretty good at it. We weren’t good at it when we started.”

The Shamrocks, who return to action tonight at Bellaire in a consolation game of the OVAC 3A tournament, wasted no time in flexing their muscle against a short-handed Panther outfit.

Barnesville surged to a 21-10 lead after one and then really blew the game open with a 19-5 second quarter. The game reached OHSAA mercy rule in the middle stages of the third quarter and never returned to regular timing rules.

“We knew they could shoot the ball and we tried to prepare our kids the best we could, but we just didn’t have it (Thursday),” Buckeye Local head coach Chris Heaton said. “We’re down a couple of guys, but that’s no excuse. It’s game 19 for us. When you can’t put the ball in the hole and they’re shooting the lights out, this (score) is what’s going to happen.”

Powell’s production clearly paced the SHamrocks. Senior Jeremy Hunkler added 10.

The Panthers received a steady effort from Cameron Best. The senior tallied 16 points. Ryder Kindberg-Colabelli added 10.

The Panthers are also back in action this evening with an OVAC consolation game, at home, against Fort Frye.