Photo by Nick Henthorn Martins Ferry’s Tev’n Williams lifts off for a jumpshot in the short corner Tuesday against Martins Ferry. Williams helped his Purple Riders to a 58-56 victory over the visiting Jets.

MARTINS FERRY — Two first-half fouls had Martins Ferry’s Alex Reese sitting out a large chunk of the second quarter in his Purple Riders’ home matchup against Union Local on Tuesday, a stretch where the Jets built a lead, ahead 35-27 at halftime.

Reese did enter late in the frame though, and converted an and-one in transition with 23 seconds to play in the second, giving the Riders a boost heading into the locker rooms– and putting Reese on the path to making up for lost time.

Martins Ferry’s star big man poured in 32 points,19 in the second half, to help the Purple Riders (5-1) defend their homecourt with a 58-56 victory over Union Local (7-2).

The game tied 53-53 late, a 3-pointer from Union Local’s Easton Ditzler put the Jets ahead 56-53 with three minutes to play.

Martins Ferry tightened things up with a score from the post by Reese with 1:07 to go, then a steal in the backcourt by Ferry’s Tev’n Williams led to another inside score by Reese, putting the Purple Riders up 57-56 with 0:50 to play.

The only scoring the rest of the way came from one free throw out of the hands of Anthony Booth with 19 seconds left.

A tough, deep 3-pointer from Union Local’s Alex Moore couldn’t find the mark as time expired.

Reese came through with the go-ahead buckets for Ferry, two of his 14 field goals as the junior also went 3-3 at the line.

Booth made three 3-pointers to score 14 for the Riders.

For the Jets, Dre Saunders led the way with 18 points, 14 in the first half, while Ditzler came through with 16.

The opening and closing quarters of Tuesday were a virtual gridlock, the big swings coming in the in-between. Union Local built an eight-point halftime lead with a fast-paced, up-and-down second quarter in which they nearly doubled their opponent’s output, 19-10, while Martins Ferry completely flipped the script in the third quarter, outsourcing the visitors 20-11, 13 from Reese in the period.

Union Local will travel to play Indian Creek on Friday, while Martins Ferry will travel to play St. Clairsville on Friday.