East Liverpool’s Ava Green blocks a shot by Beaver Local’s Mya Anderson in sectional play Thursday. (Morning Journal/Jimmy Joe Savage)

CALCUTTA — If there’s one thing better than winning a sectional championship and advancing to district competition, it’s beating your arch-rival to accomplish it.

That’s exactly what the East Liverpool girls’ basketball team achieved Thursday night, capturing a Division IV sectional title with a 41-21 win over rival Beaver Local before a large crowd in the Beavers’ gym.

It was the third meeting this season between the Beavers and Potters. Beaver Local won 45-37 over the Potters on Dec. 19 at Potter Fieldhouse and East Liverpool returned the favor, defeating the Beavers 39-28 Jan. 14 at Beaver Local.

But in their sectional championship showdown Thursday, it was all East Liverpool. The Potters combined an outstanding defensive performance, which forced 26 turnovers out of the Beavers, while outscoring the hosts 19-6 in the second half.

“This is the first sectional win we’ve had since I’ve been coaching and this is my fifth year,” smiled East Liverpool head girls’ basketball coach Josh Reed. “I’m really proud of these girls. It’s a big moment for me as well, and I’m really happy with the outcome.”

“This was a tough loss,” said Beaver Local head coach Tony Sorge. “We felt really good coming into this game and we were fortunate to get a home game for our first tournament game, and it was a good matchup, because we split with them during the regular season and both games were competitive and we were expecting a competitive game tonight. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get enough going offensively to come out with the win.”

While the Potters’ swarming defense denied Beaver Local’s offense to settle into any kind of rhythm, the Potters’ offense was led by standout senior guard LaNease Andrews, who took game scoring honors with 26 points, including all four of East Liverpool’s three-pointers.

“It feels good, I’m glad to move on,” said Andrews, who broke the East Liverpool single-game scoring record earlier this season when she poured in 51 points in a win against Wellsville. “I’m glad that I have my team and I love all the support that we have,” she added.

“LaNease does it all for us,” said Reed. “As she goes, we go, and you can see that out of the floor. I’m really proud of that girl. She surpassed 20 points six or seven times this year and led us in rebounding and assists all season.”

“Andrews is tough to stop,” said Beaver Local’s Sorge. “That was our goal was to contain her and keep her scoring down and I felt at times I felt we had good defense and we did hold them to 41 points, which is good, it was just on the offensive side we just couldn’t get anything going.”

Complementing Edwards at the offensive end for the Potters was Ava Green who finished with seven points, while Meadow O’Rourke and Presley Jones added five and four points, respectively.

Leading Beaver Local were Macie Bourne with six points, while Mercedes McCullough and Brylee Curtis tallied four points apiece.

Beaver Local took a 7-6 lead after the opening quarter, but the Potters outscored the Beavers 16-8 in the second quarter, led by Andrews, who tallied 12 of the Potters’ 22 first-half points as the visitors a 22-15 led at intermission.

The trend continued in the second half as East Liverpool outscored Beaver Local 12-3 in the third quarter to take a commanding 34-18 lead at quarter’s end.

“They created too many problems for us with their defense,” said the Beaver Local head coach.

“In the first half they dominated us (on the boards) but in the second half we cleaned that up,” said Reed. “That was a point of emphasis, and coming out in the second half I thought we did a really good job of eliminating possessions on their end.”

The Potters salted away the win in the fourth quarter, outscoring Beaver Local 7-3 to secure the 20-point triumph.

“Our girls played really hard,” said Reed. “This is always a tough game for us. Beaver Local played hard and we went back and forth this season and we split (earlier games) and we knew it was going to be a tough atmosphere. I’m just really proud of the way the girls played tonight. They went out and handled business, especially in the second half.”

The triumph sends the Potters (8-16) into a Division IV district semifinal date with top-seeded Carrollton (15-8) on Wednesday at Carrollton. Carrollton advanced with a 66-21 sectional tourney triumph over River View Thursday evening.

“I have a bunch of film on them (Carrollton),” said the East Liverpool head coach. “They’re a tough team. If we can execute we can put ourselves in a good position to play a tough game.”

Meanwhile, Beaver Local concludes its season with an 8-15 record with a youthful team.

“We’re a very young team,” said Sorge. “We have 14 players and 11 of them are sophomores and freshmen. We had a lot of players that got a ton of experience this year.”

“Best of luck to the Beaver Local seniors, they played their hearts out tonight,” said Reed.

EL: 6-16-12-7–41

BL: 7- 8- 3-3–21

EAST LIVERPOOL SCORING: Presley Jones 2-0-4, Ava Green 2-3-7, LaNease Andrews 7-7-25, Aubrey Lyle 0-0-0, Courtney Barker 0-0-0, Arie Weyand 0-0-0, Deaona Wise 0-0-0, Adrian Copeland 0-0-0, Kennedy Dobbins 0-0-0, Meadow O’Rourke 2-1-5. TEAM TOTALS: 13, 11-16: 41

BEAVER LOCAL SCORING: Gianna Congrove 0-0-0, Mercedes McCullough 1-1-4, Jansen Ours 0-0-0, Macie Bourne 3-0-6, Bella McLevey 1-0-3, Mallory Miller 0-1-1, Madi Gaydos 0-0-0, Ally Wright 1-0-3, Mya Anderson 0-0-0, Brylee Curtis 1-2-4. TEAM TOTALS: 7, 4-11: 21

Three-point goals: East Liverpool 4 (LaNease Andrews 4). Beaver Local 3 (Mercedes McCullough 1, Bella McLevey 1, Ally Wright 1)

Total fouls: East LIVERPOOL 19, Beaver Local 13. Fouled out: none.