PEDRO -- A good defense is a good offense.

The Rock Hill Redmen have turned up the defensive pressure, and in turn have increased their offense. That was the case Tuesday as the Redmen beat the Coal Grove Hornets 64-48 in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

"We're starting to score more because of our defense," Rock Hill coach Marty Mills said. "Our defense was good early and we got a big lead. We kind of let our concentration, but we picked it back up."

Rickie McDonie had 13 points and 10 rebounds to lead a balanced Rock Hill offense that saw 10 of 11 players score. David Schug scored 12 points and K. C. Christian 11.

"K. C. Christian stepped up and played a good game. He got a lot of points off our defense. Rickie had another solid night getting rebounds and putting them back up," Mills said. "Dave played well and he found guys open. He played very unselfish."

Coal Grove (1-15, 0-8) was led by Brandon Rymer with 14 points and Justin Gibson had 12.

Rock Hill jumped out to an 18-4 first quarter lead as McDonie scored 9 points and Schug 6.

Both teams scored 14 points the second quarter and it was 32-18 at the half. The Redmen extended the lead to 48-33 after the third quarter.

Gibson scored 7 points in the fourth quarter, but the Redmen were still able to add another point to their lead.

After a 2-6 start, Rock Hill is now 9-8 on the season and 5-3 in the OVC.

"We're playing pretty good team basketball right now and that's encouraging,"

Mills said. "This was a good team win. We're starting to look for each other. I'm proud of the way our guys have battled back. They were down (record-wise) early and they refused to give in."

In the reserve game, Coal Grove won 36-23 as Randy Wise scored 11 points and Alex Swarts 10. Rock Hill was paced by Matt Hartwig with 10 points.

Coal Grove4141515--48

Rock Hill18141616--64

COAL GROVE (1-15, 0-8):

Brandon Rymer 1 3 3-4 14, Tim Elliott 2 0 3-5 7, Justin Gibson 5 0 2-5 12, Tyler Sexton 3 0 1-3 7, Jimmy Lemon 3 0 2-5 8, Jim Hankins 0 0 0-0 0, Paul Rockel 0 0 0-0 0, Luke Tackett 0 0 0-0 0, Aaron Fields 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Huber 0 0 0-0 0, Randy Wise 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14

3

11-22

48. Fouls: 23. Fouled out: Sexton.

ROCK HILL (9-8, 5-3): K. C. Christian 4 0 3-9 11, Mitchell Kerns 1 0 3-4 5, Donald Cade 1 0 2-4 4, Brian Skaggs 0 0 1-2 1, T. J. Blagg 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Howard 1 0 0-1 2, Rickie McDonie 5 0 3-4 13, Zach Mullins 2 0 1-1 5, Gabe Ruggles 0 0 2-2 2, Roger Joseph 3 0 3-4 9, David Schug 6 0 0-0 12. Totals: 23

0

18-31

64. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None.