SCIOTOVILLE — You can’t judge the Coal Grove Hornets by their record.

In yet another close loss, the Hornets fell to 0-9 after losing 69-67 to the East Tartans Tuesday in a non-league game.

“Our kids competed. The kids gave a great effort in a tough place to play. I’m proud of their effort. They battled them,” Hornets coach Mike Waller said.

The numbers proved the Hornets have heart. Tyler Branch scored a career-high 25 points to go with 7 rebounds and Zack Murphy also had his best scoring effort with 20 points.

Adam Bare pulled down 14 rebounds, got 9 points and 3 assists. Shannon Goodwin had 5 rebounds.

Adam Jones scored 16 points and Chase Dickerson 14 to lead East (2-5).

Coal Grove took an 8-6 lead early before the Tartans came back to take a 16-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Branch scored 10 of the Hornets points in the quarter.

East went ahead 34-28 at the half as Dickerson scored 5 points in the second quarter.

Branch got 6 runs and the Hornets sank 7 of 9 free throws to get within 46-41 after three quarters.

Coal Grove cut the deficit to one-point with less than two minutes to play, but East was 10 of 13 from the foul line with Jones making 3 of 4.

“We got in foul trouble early, so we played a bunch of kids and every kid who went in did something positive,” Waller said.

The Hornets host Fairland Friday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

Coal Grove15131326=67

Ports. East16181223=69

COAL GROVE (0-9): Zack Murphy 6 0 8-10 20, Chris Dirling 0 0 0-0 0, Eric Davidson 1 0 0-2 2, Tyler Branch 8 0 9-11 25, Adam Bare 4 0 1-4 9, Zach Sloan 1 0 0-0 2, Shannon Goodwin 0 0 4-8 4, Austin Willis 1 1 0-0 5, Jacob Browning 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-50

22-35

67. 3-point goals: 1-9. Fouls: 25. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 31 (Bare 14, Branch 7, Goodwin 5). Assists: 9 (Bare 3, Murphy 3). Turnovers: 18.

PORTSMOUTH EAST (2-5): Nathan Williams 3 1 2-2 11, Chase Mault 1 0 1-1 3, Tyler Mault 2 0 4-7 8, Chase Dickerson 4 2 0-0 14, Brad Jones 2 0 2-2 6, Adam Jones 5 1 3-6 16, John Luther 2 0 0-0 4, Brian Collins 2 0 1-4 5, Ed Collins 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 22 4 13-22 69. Fouls: 27. Fouled out: T. Mault, Luther.