CHESAPEAKE - Okay, so the Chesapeake Panthers aren't camera buffs, they still remained picture perfect.

Having trouble staying focused early, the Panthers started clicking in the second half as they rolled past the Coal Grove Hornets 56-26 Friday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

"The second half we were focused. Sometimes it's hard for us to keep our focus. We have to do a better job of that," Panthers coach Norm Persin said.

The lack of focus may have led to the Panthers 9 for 32 shooting effort in the first half. Chesapeake was 15 of 32 in the second half.

"The first half we must have missed 20 shots from 10 feet out or less," Persin said.

But Persin didn't focus only on the negative side, but flipped to positives, namely rebounding and defense.

"Defensively, we were pretty consistent," Persin said. "The second half we controlled the glass with Whitmore and Hall. O'Brian did a good job. He sparked us the second half. And McComas comes in and makes us a faster team and he can handle the ball."

The Panthers defense held Coal Grove to just 10 of 34 field goal shooting and forced 35 turnovers. Coal Grove scored single digits in three of four quarters.

Brennan Hall had 13 points to lead a balanced Chesapeake offense. P.J. Rase and Dustin O'Brien had 8 points each. Brent Ransbottom grabbed seven rebounds and Matt Whitmore six for the Panthers (11-0, 5-0).

Justin Hyland and Evan Melvin had 6 points each for Coal Grove (6-6, 4-2).

Neither team could get any offense going in the first half. Coal Grove held a 10-9 lead with 2:11 left in the first quarter when Jimmy Lemon followed up a missed shot.

Hall put the Panthers up for good with a layup off a nice pass from Trent Finley at the 1:54 mark and it was 11-10 at the end of the quarter.

A layup by Finley gave Chesapeake its biggest lead of the half at 19-12 with 28 seconds left, but Evan Melvin hit a baseline jumper just before the buzzer as Coal Grove cut the deficit to 19-14 at the break.

P.J. Rase, who took only two shots in the first half, scored 6 of the Panthers first 8 points of the second half and the lead shot up to 27-14.

Coal Grove missed its first five shots before Randy Wise hit a 3-pointer with 4:01 left in the third quarter and a 10-footer by Zach Huber made it 27-19.

But the Hornets would get no closer.

The Panthers went on an 8-0 run to finish the quarter to lead 35-19 and then Hall had a layup and Caleb McComas nailed a 12-footer as the Panthers lead grew to 39-19 with 7:00 to play.

Coal Grove10457-26

Chesapeake1181621-56

COAL GROVE (6-6, 4-2):

Zach Huber 2-4 (0-2) 1-1 5, Justin Hyland 1-10 (0-4) 4-6 6, Randy Wise 2-8 (1-6) 0-0 5, Jimmy Lemon 1-2 (0-0) 0-0 2, Tyler Sexton 1-3 (0-0) 0-0 2, Adam Bare 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Evan Melvin 3-6 (0-0) 0-0 6, J.D. Elswick 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Matt Melvin 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 10-34

(1-12)

5-7

26. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 7-22=29 (Hyland 9, Lemon 5). Assists: 2. Steals: 3 (Hyland 2). Turnovers: 35.

CHESAPEAKE (11-0, 5-0):

Brennan Hall 5-9 (0-0) 3-4 13, Justin Porter 2-6 (0-1) 0-0 4, P.J. Rase 4-11 (0-1) 0-0 8, Trent Finley 2-9 (0-5) 0-0 4, Dustin O'Brien 4-8 (0-0) 0-0 8, Brent Ransbottom 2-5 (0-0) 2-5 6, Jeff Thornburg 2-5 (0-2) 0-0 4, Caleb McComas 1-5 (0-1) 3-5 5, Matt Whitmore 0-3 (0-0) 0-0 0, Mike Stapleton 0-1 (0-0) 0-0 0, Tyler Shoemaker 1-1 (0-0) 0-1 2, Zach Morrison 1-1 (0-0) 0-0 2. Totals: 24-64

(0-10)

8-15

56. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 18-10=28 (Ransbottom 7, Whitmore 6). Assists: 13 (Rase 3). Steals: 15 (Rase 4). Turnovers: 11.