By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

ATHENS — So much for that strategy.

The Wellston Golden Rockets were a heavy underdog heading into Sunday’s Division III district semifinal and the plan was to run a slowdown game.

The plan didn’t work.

“It was an opportunity to work on a team trying to run clock,” said Panthers’ coach Ryan Davis. “We worked on it in practice. We just tried to apply pressure and speed them up.”

Now there’s a plan that worked.

Chesapeake forced the Rockets into 35 turnovers and steamrolled their way to an 81-36 romp at Ohio University.

Patrick Hintz scored a career-high 19 points to lead the Panthers (21-1) who play Piketon at 7 p.m. Saturday in the district finals.

The Red Streaks topped Alexander 59-54.

Hintz also had four steals to match the total by Nathan Copley who scored 13 points, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out six assists.

“Patrick played pretty mature and aggressive today. Early we weren’t finishing shots and he did,” said Davis. “He did a good job and Copley did a good job.”

Eric Kennedy scored 15 points off the bench, Austin McMaster had 14 points and Colin Kennedy added 12 points and seven rebounds.

Wellston (11-11) was led by Andrew Richards with nine points.

The Panthers forced Wellston into eight turnovers to start the game and did not allow a field goal attempt until the 2:40 mark.

But then the Panthers led 16-4 as Hintz scored 10 first quarter points and it was 21-6 at the end of the first stanza.

Chesapeake continued to roll in the second quarter. The Panthers hit 10 of 19 shots including a 3-pointer by Eric Kennedy with one second left that opened up a 47-10 halftime lead.

The Panthers were up 71-22 at the end of the third quarter and built their biggest lead at 75-25 with 6:41 to play on a layup by Eric Kennedy.

Wellston 6 4 12 14 = 36

Chesapeake 21 26 24 10 = 81

WELLSTON (11-11): Dakota Brown 0 0 0-1 0, Nigel Courts 1 0 2-2 4, Justus Ousley 1 1 0-0 5, Austin Craig 3 0 0-2 6, Blake Warrington 1 1 2-2 7, Colt Ervin 0 0 0-0 0, 3 1 0-1 9, Joe Young 0 1 0-0 3, D.J Young 1 0 0-0 2, Lane Bunnell 0 0 0-0 0, Ted Compston 0 0 0-0 0, Nick Derrow 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-35 4-8 36. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. Three-point goals: 3-9. Rebounds: 7 offense, 27 defense = 34 (Ousley 8, Richards 5). Teams Rebounds: 7. Assists: 3 (Brown 3). Steals: 4 (Craig 3, Brown 1). Turnovers: 35.

CHESAPEAKE (21-1): Nathan Copley 2 3 0-0 13, Patrick Hintz 6 2 1-1 19, Javon Thompson 0 1 0-0 3, Austin McMaster 6 0 2-2 14, Colin Kennedy 4 0 4-5 12, Eric Kennedy 3 2 3-4 15, Brandon Noble 0 0 2-4 2, Nick Duffield 1 0 0-0 2, Caleb Lindsey 0 0 0-0 0, Nate Jones 0 0 1-2 1, Seth Skeens 0 0 0-0 0, Taylor Benaei 0 0 0-0 0, Mikey Walters 0 0 0-0 0, Chad Meadows 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 30-74 13-18 81. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: None. Three-point goals: 8-23. Rebounds: 20 offense, 16 defense = 36 (Copley 7, Kennedy 7). Team Rebounds: 2. Assists: 15 (Copley 6, Hintz 3, Thompson 2). Steals: 21 (Copley 4, Hintz 4, Thompson 3, McMaster 3) Turnovers: 5.