By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

SOUTH POINT — If you want to focus on the South Point Pointers’ leading scorer Blake Barnes, be forewarned. There are other players on the team.

While the Lucasville Valley Indians sent two and even three players after Barnes, his teammates picked up the slack as four players were in double figures as the Pointers won their season opener 76-71 Saturday.

“Blake did a good job being patient and distributing the ball. They were doubling and triple teaming him the whole game,” said Pointers’ coach Chris Barnes.

“But we showed we were a team, not one player. We had four guys in double figures. Kyle Winkler and Will Hill were huge and we got 22 points from our two guards off the bench.”

Winkler led the Pointers with 19 points while Blake Barnes scored 16 despite taking just 10 shots. He also had four steals.

Bandon Barnes came off the bench to score 14 and Tevin Mitchell had 13. Austin Jeffreys just missed double figures with 8 points off the bench.

South Point led 15-13 after the first quarter and then pulled away to a 39-26 halftime lead.

The Pointers led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter before settling for a 59-42 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Lucasville Valley then outscored the Pointers 29-17 but the comeback bid fell short.

“They got hot in the fourth quarter but we need to do a better job staying on task. We let up on offense and defense and we can’t do that. We started playing not to lose and stopped being aggressive,” said coach Barnes.

Blake Yates had 16 points for the Indians (0-2) but only two in the first half. Luke Keller scored 14 and Rob Dwyer added 11.

Lucasville Valley 13 13 16 29 = 71

South Point 15 24 20 17 = 76

LUCASVILLE VALLEY (0-2): Blake Yates 4 0 8-9 16 (2 first half 7 after 3), Will Howard 0 0 1-2 1, Rob Dwyer 5 0 1-2 11, Luke Keller 6 0 2-6 14, Kelly Holcomb 1 0 0-0 2, Patrick Riehl 4 0 1-1 9, Jordan West 0 2 0-0 6, Justin Linne 2 0 1-2 5, Brice Crabtree 2 0 0-0 4. Totals: 25 2 15-22 71. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None.

SOUTH POINT (1-0): Tevin Mitchell 3 1 4-6 13, Austin Jeffreys 2 1 1-2 8, Will Hill 3 0 0-1 6, Blake Barnes 5 0 6-8 16, Kyle Winkler 4 3 2-2 19, Brandon Barnes 4 1 3-5 14, Mike Leighty 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 6 16-24 76. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: Leighty.