Photo by Kim North Union Local’s Laken Vinskovich drives to the basket while being fouled by Aubree Cottrell (10) during their Ohio Division V East 2 Sectional Tournament contest Thursday night inside ‘The Hangar’ at Union Local High School. Vinskovich had a career-high 36 points in the 73-41 win.

MORRISTOWN — When Ameera Saunders — half of Union Local’s ‘Twin Towers’ — went down with a season-ending knee injury in mid-January, that left just one tower standing — Laken Vinskovich, but that was all the Jets needed.

Playing her final game inside ‘The Hangar,’ the 6-0 foot senior made it a memorable night with a career-high 36 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots as the top-seeded Jets (19-4) flew past visiting No. 9 Claymont, 73-41, Thursday night in an Ohio Division V East 2 Sectional Tournament contest.

Her point total came two shy of older sister Reagan’s 38 on Wednesday night for West Liberty. It also eclipsed Reagan’s high school career-high of 34.

“It means so much because we have worked countless hours on this court our entire high school career, so it’s amazing to know that all the hard work has paid off,” Vinskovich said of her and her senior teammates — Delaney Butler, Myah Martin and Alli Kellaway — playing their final home game.

“I couldn’t have done it without my girls. Once we figured out all of their junk defenses, it was pretty easy,” the latest Jets’ 1,000-point scorer said.

The loss ended the short-handed Mustangs (12-11) second season under former Union Local all-Ohioan and 1,000-point scorer Alli Delaney’s. She netted 1,039 during her career in which she earned special mention all-Ohio in 2016.

“I am proud of our effort. We knew it was going to be a tough task coming in with some adversity, but I thought the first quarter we gave them our best shot and showed them we were here to play.”

However, after tying the game at 13 early in the second quarter, Delaney watched her alma mater reel off 17 unanswered points to take command at 30-13.

“When they hit their stride and get their momentum going, it’s hard to get it back,” she said. “You’re talking about a group of girls that have played a ton of big games. We knew we had to kind of keep them off-balance, but once that got that groove going, it was hard to knock them off that track.”

Vinskovich sparked the 17-0 spurt with seven of her 16-first half points. She duplicated that total in the third quarter during a 23-11 surge that ballooned the count to 58-30. When she left the court in the fourth quarter, she had more points than Claymont at that point.

“Laken had an outstanding game,” Union Local head coach Lou “Scooter” Tolzda said. “Think about this, her sister (Reagan) had 38 against Glenville (on Wednesday) and Laken had 36 tonight. Shout out to the Vinskovich family.”

With Vinskovich and her senior mates in the lineup, Union Local is now a sparkling 83-19 in four years. Vinskovich was playing in her 102nd career game, which is second in program history to her sister and Torre Kildow.

“We talk about a lot of stuff as a team, but we talked about this being their final home game,” Tolzda said. “They’ve had great careers here.”

Union Local only had one other double-figure scorer, that being sophomore Ellie Greenwood with 10, but Butler and Kellaway had eight each and Martin six. Greenwood also charted four steals and seven rebounds, while Butler also snagged seven boards.

“Alli has done a great job out there. It was no fun coaching against her,” Tolzda admitted. “She has been a huge part of where we are now because she was an assistant here for a while.”

Ava Edwards scored 26 of the Mustangs points.

With the lop-sided victory, Union Local will now face No. 5 Martins Ferry on Wednesday at a site to be determined by Eastern District officials. That winner will move on to the district semifinals.

“We are looking forward to playing Martins Ferry for the third time,” Tolzda said. “People say it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season, but I don’t know about that. I kind of look at us as the underdog after losing Ameera and beating them twice.

“We know who they are and they know who we are. It should be a great Ohio Valley girls basketball game.”

Claymont charted 19 turnovers, nine more than Union Local.