BARNESVILLE — When a basketball team has an off night shooting, it has to play well on the other end of the court if it has a chance at winning. Union Local did just that Monday night.

The visiting Jets (2-0) overcame a lackluster outing overall by forcing the Shamrocks (0-3) into 28 turnovers and an ice-cold 17 percent shooting in a wire-to-wire 42-16 victory inside the Greenhouse at Barnesville High School.

“I say this all the time. The scoreboard lies and it is lying tonight,” Union Local head coach Lou “Scooter” Tolzda said. “We have to figure out if we want to play hard all the time or do we want to play hard when we pick and choose.

“I’m disappointed in our girls, despite winning,” he added. “We’re always going to play well defensively. We expect to play well on defense.”

Union Local only shot 37.5 percent (18-48) and had a dozen turnovers.

The Jets host Martins Ferry in a key early-season Buckeye 8 matchup on Thursday, but Tolzda said his team wasn’t looking ahead.

“We weren’t looking ahead. We were lethargic and looked like we had no energy at all,” he noted.

Ameera Saunders got Union Local off to a good start with eight of her 11 points in the first quarter when the visitors jumped out to a 12-4 lead and never looked back.

The Jets widened the gap in the second quarter as the Shamrocks went 0-for-4 from the floor and charted nine turnovers. Laken Vinskovich netted eight of her game-best 17 points in the quarter as the visitors held a 26-7 advantage at the half.

The teams combined for seven points and 13 turnovers in the third panel as Barnesville trimmed the deficit to 28-12 but would get no closer.

“We couldn’t make any shots tonight. We had some wide-open shots, but they just weren’t falling,” Barnesville head coach Ty Leach said. “The girls got the looks. They fought hard. We just need to get more confident on the offensive end.

“I thought we handled the press fairly well, but we turned the ball over with a lot of bad passes in the paint,” Leach added.

The Shamrocks did hold a 38-29 margin off the glass behind Lydia Welch’s 13 boards. Fifteen of the 38 came on the offensive end of the floor.

“We fought really hard on the boards despite being out-sized,” Leach praised.

“They took it to us on the boards. They embarrassed us on the offensive end,” Tolzda said. “I am totally shocked at how they just took it to us. Their big girl just outworked our big girls.”

Saunders had eight boards and Vinskovich seven.