Beaver Local All-Ohioan Owen Hill dunks against Youngstown Mooney on Tuesday. (Morning Journal/Josh Blakeley)

CALCUTTA — Beaver Local, which returned a wealth of experience from a 14-win team a season ago, got off to a great start to the 2025-26 boys basketball campaign Tuesday night as the Beavers topped Youngstown Cardinal Mooney, 59-42.

The Beavers rolled out to a 21-12 lead after one quarter and answered every Cardinal Mooney run to notch their impressive opening night triumph over the Cardinals, one of the new opponents on its beefed up schedule.

The Beavers were dominant both offensively and defensively in the paint against the smaller Cardinals. Beaver Local’s returning 6-foot-7 first-team All-Ohioan Owen Hill led the Beavers with a game-high 18 points, including a slam dunk and a three-pointer. On defense, he also altered many Mooney shots and finished with 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“I love to play defense in there,” said Hill. “I like to go into a 2-3 (defense) so I can just stay in the middle, and if they come in, I can just block their shot or alter it at least. I’m a big body underneath there and I love snagging those rebounds too. It’s one one of my favorite things to do. I also take pride in blocking the ball.”

“I give the big guy a lot of credit,” said Beaver Local coach Nick Miller . “Everybody raves about his ability to score, but he takes a lot of pride on the defensive end. He wants to own the paint and go to the glass — that was a big goal for him tonight. We worry less about the points, because those are going to come.”

Also turning in an outstanding effort was Beaver Local’s Matt Anderson who finished with 17 points, while Peyton Cowdery ended with nine points, Aiden Dray added seven and Luke Rettos finished with six markers.

Leading Cardinal Mooney were Tyler Guerrieri and Dante Turner with 10 points apiece, while Brook Willis finished with nine points.

Hill knows getting a season-opening win against a program like Cardinal Mooney and playing some other tough teams on the schedule will only help the Beavers down the road.

“We usually start out with a not-so-great team to just get a win under our belt, and I think we came in this year and wanted a big win and I think we got it against a really good team from Youngstown, and I’m really happy about that win,” said the Beaver Local senior star who recently signed with West Liberty. “We won (14) games last year and we fell off pretty badly at the end of the year and lost some games we should have won, but this year we’ve got a harder schedule with Steubenville, Cardinal Mooney and West Branch is another really good team, so if we can get some wins under our belt, we’re definitely looking really good for the tournament.”

“I’m loving our schedule, I think tonight was a great test,” said Miller. “Mooney is going to get a lot better, they’re a well-coached team and they’re deep. They have three or four off the bench that can score, so I’m looking for them to make a little noise later in the year.”

The Beavers set the tone early as Rettos hit a layup just seconds into the game and the Beavers never looked back. With Hill patrolling the middle and denying the smaller Cardinals anything inside, the Beavers jumped out to a 21-12 lead after one quarter. Hill tallied seven points in the opening frame, including a slam dunk and a three-pointer.

The Beavers took as much as a 13-point advantage twice in the second quarter, the last coming at 27-14, following a fielder by Cowdery with 4:48 showing before halftime. Beaver Local took a 12-point (32-20) advantage into the locker room, as Hill led the Beavers in the opening 16 minutes with 13 points and seven rebounds.

“The start of the game was beautiful,” said Miller. “We did a great job of disrupting them on the defensive end and got a couple easy baskets and it’s always nice when the three-pointer goes in in the first quarter. I think we hit three in the first and it really extended their zone and it got us downhill.”

Cardinal Mooney pulled as close as four points twice in the third quarter, the last coming at 38-34 with 1:55 showing on the clock, but the Beavers answered by outscoring the Cardinals 6-2 to take an eight-point (44-36) lead entering the fourth quarter.

Mooney pulled within six points (44-38) with 7:15 left in the game but Beaver Local answered with an impressive 15-4 run in the remaining time to secure the 17-point win.

“I’m proud of my guys,” said Miller. “Four of my five starters played a bunch last year.”

Game notes

• Cardinal Mooney won the junior varsity game by a 66-37 final.

• Beaver Local will entertain Buckeye Local Friday night in Buckeye 8 action.

“I’m expecting that to be a little bit of a dogfight,” said Miller. “I saw them play Liverpool and that was a scrappy game for three-and-a-half quarters. They have a lot of guys back who are familiar with the program and they have a new coach, so we’re expecting them to play very hard.”

YM: 12- 8-16- 6–42

BL: 21-11-12-15–59

MOONEY SCORING: Kingston Powell 0-0-0, Grayson DuBos 2-0-4, Kaden Reese 0-0-0, Dante Turner 4-0-9, Tyler Guerrieri 3-2-10, Brook Willis 3-2-9, Pierce Jones 0-0-0, Ford Stacey 5-0-10, Landon Keck 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 17, 4-16: 42.

BEAVER LOCAL SCORING: Owen Hill 6-5-18, Matt Anderson 6-3-17, Luke Rettos 3-0-6, Nick McKenzie 1-0-2, Aiden Dray 3-0-7, Tucker McElroy 0-0-0, Peyton Cowdery 4-1-9. TEAM TOTALS: 23, 9-15: 59

Three-point goals: Mooney 4 (Tyler Guerrieri 2, Brook Willis 1, Dante Turner 1); Beaver Local 4 (Matt Anderson 2, Owen Hill 1, Aiden Dray 1).

Total fouls: Mooney 16, Beaver Local 10. Fouled out: none.