Belpre's AJ Copen ties up Trimble's Dirk Walton during the Golden Eagles' 71-61 Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division victory Thursday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

BELPRE — A dominating first-half performance here Thursday night allowed Belpre to hold a 40-23 intermission advantage against Trimble as the Golden Eagles picked up a 71-61 Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division victory.

Despite picking up a pair of quick fouls in the first quarter, Golden Eagle Malik Currie pumped in 14 of his 24 counters in the second stanza to help lead the way for Belpre’s first home win of the campaign for head man Ryan Leasure.

Haiden Tabler notched a dozen of his 18 markers in the second half for the Golden Eagles, who got a 15-point, game-high 11-rebound double-double from Malakai Ensor along with nine counters by AJ Copen.

“Trimble is a pretty good 1-4. They are not a bad team. They got some athletes. They got some shooters,” said coach Leasure, who watched Tomcat Luke Orsborne go for 24 points with Brady Jajczyk going for 20 and Hunter Brandeberry eight. “We played really well in the first half because we were moving the ball. All five guys were touching it and we were using everybody.

“That allows some defensive breakdowns for us to kind of exploit to get after it. There in the third quarter. We had about a three minute stretch where we allowed them to get going. Our shot selections. Our turnovers. We were trying to extend our lead, but we got guys that haven’t been in that position just yet. We haven’t had a pretty good halftime lead in a while.”

Belpre's Haiden Tabler goes up for two of his 18 points during the Golden Eagles' 71-61 Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division victory versus Trimble on Thursday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

The 4-3 Golden Eagles, who sent the 1-5 Tomcats of first-year head coach Eric Tabler to a fourth straight setback, held a commanding 34-15 advantage on the boards and shot 59.1% (29 of 49).

Caleb Cahoe’s triple gave the visitors a 13-12 cushion with 1:52 left in the first, but Belpre went in front to stay after an Ensor deuce. Buckets by Copen and Tabler gave the hosts an 18-13 cushion after one.

Trimble, which hit 8 of 20 from distance including 5 of 11 in the opening half, only trailed 20-15 early in the second following an Orsborne reverse lay-in. However, Currie drained consecutive 3s to push the lead to 11 and the hosts led 33-19 following a Hunter Terrell putback.

Although a three-point play by Cade Burba got the deficit back to 11, the Golden Eagles ended the half on a 7-1 run.

Paul Sharp opened the second half with one of his game-high seven assists as he found Jajczyk for a bucket and the deficit was back to 11 at 42-31 after Trimble got baskets from Orsborne, Brandeberry and Jajczyk.

Belpre's Malakai Ensor, who double-doubled with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, goes up for the jump ball with Trimble's Brady Jajczyk during the Golden Eagles' 71-61 Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division victory Thursday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Three straight deuces by Tabler, which included a pair of putbacks, extended the advantage to 48-31 and the Tomcats trailed by 20 at the 3:21 mark after Currie converted a three-point play.

Orsborne had nine of his counters in the third, which included a three-point play, as the visitors cut it back to single digits at 51-42 following a Jajczyk steal and layup.

However, Currie had a lay-in and then canned a stepback 3 to close out the third as Belpre held a 56-42 advantage.

Trimble, which plays host at 3:15 p.m. Saturday to Nelsonville-York, cut the deficit to seven on three occasions in the fourth, but couldn’t get any closer.

Tabler grabbed seven caroms and had a team-high five assists while Currie had six boards.

Belpre's Malik Currie, pictured here recording a steal against Trimble, finished with 24 points during the Golden Eagles' 71-61 Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division victory Thursday night. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“When you’re up big like that you got to take it easy. You got to really break them down to score. We were trying to go too quickly,” coach Leasure said of the second half. “That’s a learning experience for us. It was kind of our fault that allowed them to get going and kind of started that third quarter issue.

“We’ve really been preaching we need to move the basketball. When we don’t move the basketball we struggle to score. We get too much dribble happy and we get 1-on-1. We got into that. I called a 30-second timeout and said let’s take better shots and our first two shots were 3s. That’s something we’ll work on in practice. That’s a good win for us.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com