Belpre’s Blake Church (21) handles the ball during Friday’s game against Trimble. (Photo by Aaron Lee)

BELPRE — After two straight losses against John Marshall (51-40) and Wahama (62-53), Belpre boys basketball stopped the losing streak with a win against a physical Trimble squad led by veteran coach Howie Caldwell. The Golden Eagles managed to quash an attempted comeback by the Tomcats, and won by a final of 57-50.

Belpre struck first with a layup by Junior Bass. A 3-pointer by Derek Liston extended the lead to 7-0 for the Golden Eagles. After Brady Jajczyk of Trimble hit a three, Nasaih Spencer instantly responded with a triple of his own. Belpre led 14-7 at the end of the first.

At the start of the second quarter, Chris Copen executed a well-placed bounce pass to a waiting Bass under the basket for two. Later, Blake Church hit a long 3. Trimble’s Levi Weber answered with one of his own. Church found the net again on a pullup jumper. A triple by Kaden Kempton allowed the Tomcats to pull closer. The Golden Eagles went into the half up 35-27.

Trimble came out of halftime with a vengeance. The Tomcats tied things up at 35 with a basket by Cole Wright. Belpre quickly regained a substantial lead with three 3’s, two by Liston and one by Church.

There were a lot of Belpre turnovers in the second half of the third quarter. Despite this, the Golden Eagles still held on to a decent lead thanks to the sheer quantity of earlier 3-point makes. The score stood at 46-38 Belpre going into the final quarter.

Belpre’s Haiden Tabler, right, handles the ball as Trimble’s Levi Weber defends during Friday’s game. (Photo by Aaron Lee)

The fourth quarter began with a defensive clinic. Neither team scored until Church made the first basket two and a half minutes into the period. A basket by Wright pulled the Tomcats to six points down at 50-44 with two minutes remaining.

After an injury to Church, Spencer hit a pair of free throws in his absence to give the Golden Eagles some breathing room. Trimble shifted into desperation mode and began fouling, but it was not enough. Belpre won by a final score of 57-50.

Church had a game-high 16 points, followed by Liston with 14 and Spencer with 13. Trimble’s leading scorer, Wright, had 15.

Church said of their opponents, “That’s a really aggressive team. They are every year, and we came out and matched their aggressiveness, and I thought we played really well.”

On the team’s mindset going forward, Church explained, “We’re just looking to keep the intensity up like we did tonight, and keep fighting through it.”

Belpre head coach Ryan Leasure gave his thoughts after the win, “I thought we responded well. We’ve had two straight losses, so we got back to work in practice this week and really focused on things that we were successful at last year and in the beginning of the year. We’ve had a tough non-conference schedule, and we knew this one was coming up. Trimble is a tough team, they’re well coached, and we knew it was going to be a physical game, and that’s what it was. I’m proud of our guys for responding and playing some solid basketball tonight.”

With some tough games coming down the pipeline, Leasure wants the team to, “Control what we can control. It’s trying to execute our offense. Obviously we’ll do some scouting and get a game plan together, but we just gotta focus on what we do well, and whatever happens happens.”

He concluded, “Our guys played well. Our senior leaders in Blake Church and Derek Liston played well. Junior Bass played well, Chris Copen, Nasaih Spencer, those guys deserve credit because they played their butts off tonight.”

Belpre advances to 7-4 with the win. The Golden Eagles play host to Marietta at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com