By JIM WALKER

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

PEDRO — The South Point Pointers took care of the warmup bout. Now for the title fight.

The Pointers avoided any upset thoughts by the pesky Rock Hill Redmen with a 66-39 Ohio Valley Conference win on Tuesday to set up a huge game with Fairland on Friday.

“That was a good team win,” said Pointers coach Travis Wise. “Lovely had a great game for us and everyone fed off of him. It was a needed win for Friday’s showdown with Fairland.”

Lovely had a huge game as he scored 33 points to go with 9 rebounds for the Pointers.

South Point is now 10-5 overall and remained a half-game behind Chesapeake in the OVC race at 7-2 along with Fairland.

Lovely scored 9 points including a 3-pointer and Xathan Haney had 4 points as the Pointers took a slim 15-14 first quarter lead.

Levi Jenkins and Blake Porter each hit a 3-pointer and scored 5 points and Izaak Cox added 4 points for the Redmen in the quarter.

South Point blew the game open in the second quarter by outscoring Rock Hill 19-4 and it was 34-18 at the half.

Lovely drilled 4 shots from behind the arc as he erupted for 15 of the Pointers total in the quarter.

Kelan Davidson and Dylan Griffith had the Rock Hill baskets.

The Pointers continued to pile onto their lead as they extended the spread to 54-32 with Lovely going 3-of-5 at the foul line and scoring 9 points.

Griffith had 5 points, Cox 4 and Davidson a 3-pointer for the Redmen.

Both teams emptied their bench in the fourth quarter and the Pointers Ethan Layne took advantage of the opportunity to score 8 of his 10 points including a 3-pointer.

Griffith had 10 points to pace the Redmen (5-12, 1-9).

South Point 15 19 20 12 = 66

Rock Hill 14 4 14 7 = 39

SOUTH POINT (10-5, 7-2): Caleb Lovely 8 4 5-7 33, Carter Smith 2 0 0-0 4, Elijah Wilburn 1 0 0-0 1, Davon Lewis 1 0 0-0 2, Xathan Haney 3 0 1-1 7, Josh Childers 1 0 0-0 1, Landon Vance 1 0 0-0 2, Ethan Layne 3 1 1-1 10, Brayden Hanshaw 2 0 0-0 4, Ethan Hunt 0 0 0-0 0, Jalyn Anderson 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-52 7-9 66. 3-pt goals: 5-13. Rebounds: 41 (Lovely 9, Hanshaw 7, Smith 5, Lewis 5). Assists: 16 (Childers 4, Hanshaw 3). Steals: 9 (Lovely 2, Haney 2, Layne 2). Turnovers: 13. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.

ROCK HILL (5-13, 1-9): Dylan Griffith 3 1 1-1 10, Braxton Harper 0 0 0-0 0, Levi Jenkins 1 1 0-0 5, Ethan Bragg 0 0 0-0 0, Izaak Cox 4 0 0-0 8, Rylan Barker 0 0 0-0 0, Lucas Cremeans 0 0 0-0 0, Kelan Davidson 2 1 0-2 7, Logan Fradd 0 0 0-0 0, Blake Porter 12 1 2-2 9, Aaron Workman 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 4 3-5 39. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.