Belpre’s Malakai Ensor (33) goes up for a jumper as Frontier’s Avery Powell (1) defends during the St. Marys Invitational Friday. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

ST. MARYS — The Belpre Golden Eagles put on an absolute shooting clinic Friday night in the opening game of the 2026 St. Marys Invitational at St. Marys High School.

The Eagles knocked down 13 triples in the game and overcame an early-nine-point deficit to knock off the Frontier Cougars, 65-57.

Belpre shot a blistering 50 percent from behind the arc, including eight threes from sophomore A.J. Copen.

Copen made four three-pointers alone in the third quarter as the Eagles broke open a close ballgame.

“(Copen) hasn’t been shooting it well this year, but he’s put in a lot of hard work in practice,” said Belpre head coach Ryan Leasure. “He’s been making them in practice and we’ve been on him to stay with it and tonight it finally translated into the game.”

Belpre’s AJ Copen (24) pulls up for one of his eight 3-pointers as Frontier’s Hunter Taylor (2) contests during the St. Marys Invitational Friday. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Early on it was the Cougars who had the hot hand as they quickly jumped out to a 13-4 lead.

Sophomore Kason Hoff scored eight of those 13 points for Frontier, including a pair from behind the arc.

Belpre cut the lead to four on a three-pointer by Malik Currie, but the Cougars answered with a three-point play from junior Jacob Bowersock and a two-pointer from senior Avery Powell to push their lead back to nine.

Copen beat the buzzer with his second triple of the opening quarter to cut the lead to 22-16.

An inside bucket by Belpre big-man Malakai Ensor opened the second quarter before Bowersock completed his second three-point play of the half to extend the Cougar lead to seven.

Frontier’s Avery Powell (1) attacks the basket as Belpre’s AJ Copen defends during the St. Marys Invitational Friday. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The Eagles began to warm up from long distance as Currie and Copen knocked down back-to-back triples to cut the lead to a single point.

After a Bowersock free throw, Currie put Belpre in front with his third three-pointer of the opening half.

Currie followed up his three-pointer with a two-pointer to extend the lead to three.

Hoff tied things back up for the Cougars with his third triple of the first half, but Belpre closed out the half with two-pointers from Ensor and Currie and a three-pointer from Jayden Gibbs to take a 36-29 lead into the break.

Currie scored 15 points in the opening half as Belpre went from a nine-point deficit to a seven-point lead.

“He’s our best offensive player and teams know that so they try to play him physical,” said Leasure. “Malik’s a good kid and working hard for us and him and AJ (Copen) are a tough combo.”

While Currie did the most damage for Belpre in the second quarter, it was Copen who took things into his own hands in the pivotal third.

After Bowersock’s bucket cut the lead to three to open the second half, Copen knocked down triples on three consecutive Belpre possessions. After a two-pointer by Hoff, Copen struck again with his fourth triple of the third period.

Three of those shots from behind the arc came via an assist from Carson Woodford as the Eagles opened up a 15-point lead.

Two-pointers from Currie and Ensor to open the final quarter gave Belpre its biggest lead of the game at 55-39.

The Cougars managed to chip away at the lead and got it under double digits, but that wasas close as they would get as Belpre improved to 8-7 on the season.

Copen led all scorers with 26 while Currie added 19.

While Copen and Currie took care of things on the outside, Ensor did so under the basket as the Eagle junior finished with 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

“We really stressed this week that we needed to have a paint presence,” said Leasure. “We worked on him on making sure we post up and are putting some pressure on the rim and he responded and had a good game for us.”

Bowersock led the Cougars with 22 points while Hoff and Powell added 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Frontier head coach Roger Kirkpatrick felt like his team allowed Belpre to get too many open shots which led to their downfall after their great start.

“We played a great first quarter but it’s hard to win when they make 13 threes,” said Kirkpatrick. “I felt like we were a step slow and didn’t play with enough intensity on defense.”

The loss halted Frontier’s winning streak at five games and dropped their season record to 9-5.

With seven games to go in the regular season, Leasure likes the progress his team is making in the second half.

“We are a game over .500 with a pretty tough schedule for a small school like us,” said Leasure. “We are battling every game and getting better and I like this group and hopefully we can go into the tournament and make some noise.”

With a winter storm forecasted for Saturday, the second day of the SMHS Invite has been postponed to a future date.