Photo by Kim North Martins Ferry’s Lindsey Best (11) drives to the basket Monday night as Harrison Central’s Mikayla Pelegreen (11) defends during a game inside Tolbert Gymnasium. The Purple Riders roared to a 70-24 triumph as Best had 29 to lead the way.

MARTINS FERRY — For the third consecutive outing, Martins Ferry has taken its frustrations out on its opponents following a second-half collapse at Marietta in the season opener a week ago tonight.

The Purple Riders (3-1) used the same recipe Monday night in posting another blowout win, this time 70-24 over visiting Harrison Central (0-4) inside Tolbert Gymnasium high atop the Purple City in girls’ high school basketball action.

“We’ve played four games and we’ve played one bad 4-minute stretch,” Martins Ferry head coach Dave Reasbeck said. “The last three games we’ve played super hard. When you played hard like we’ve been playing, good things will happen.”

Martins Ferry pressured the Huskies into 15 turnovers in the first half alone and an eye-popping 32 for the game. The early defensive onslaught created easy baskets as the hosts knocked layup after layup.

“I’ve been waiting 15 years for this group, that’s taking nothing away from other groups, but this team is super athletic, and man do they play hard,” Reasbeck added.

Junior Lindsey Best ignited the runaway victory with 16 first-quarter points. She outscored the Huskies by herself with 29 points, which featured four treys. The third team all-Ohioan last winter added five rebounds and four steals.

Joining Best in double digits was classmate Lindse Sidon with 14, including a pair of long-distance buckets. She also charted four steals. Senior Danielle Lude scored just five points but came up big defensively with eight steals.

“Danielle is mad, well not mad, but she wants to play more. They all do,” Reasbeck noted. “We’ve got a tough four-game stretch coming up that is going to define our season, and I told her she’s going to be out there.”

Martins Ferry led 25-6 after one quarter and took a 46-10 advantage into the locker room at halftime. The second half featured a running clock mandated by the OHSAA’s 30-point differential rule as the hosts led 65-20 after three panels.

“They are a good team. They’ve got the pieces they are putting together,” Harrison Central head coach Chace Smith said. “They’ve got a really good team and the Best girl is the real deal.

“We’ve got two young girls, a freshman and a sophomore, who are handling the ball. We’ve just got to back to the drawing board and get back to fundamentals. We’ve got Union Local on Thursday, so we don’t have much time, but we’ll work at it.”

Promising junior Maddie Sedgmer scored half of the Huskies’ points.

“Maddie is working really hard,” Smith praised. “She is playing really well.”

Harrison Central grabbed a 26-22 edge off the boards as Danica Rensi pulled down six and Sedgmer five. Best led the Purple Riders with three as 10 different players recorded at least one and eight players reached the scoring column.

Martins Ferry committed 10 turnovers, with half of those coming in the first eight minutes and only two coming in the second half.

Martins Ferry hits the road for its next two contests. It visits Wintersville on Thursday to meet Indian Creek before heading south on Ohio 7 Saturday to face River in Hannibal. The Purple Riders return home a week from Thursday to host Bellaire before traveling to Morristown to meet Union Local.

“Those are four really huge games for us,” Reasbeck said. “Hopefully, we’ll be ready for them.”