CADIZ — The Edison girls’ basketball team got off to a fast start, and Barnesville was unable to keep up with the Wildcats.

The Wildcats built a 14-point advantage against the Shamrocks in the first quarter, and No. 2 seed Edison went on to defeat No. 7 seed Barnesville, 54-42, in an Ohio Division V Eastern District Semifinal Wednesday night out at Harrison Central.

“It was a really nice win,” Edison (20-2) head coach Mark Smyth said. “I’m really happy.”

With the win, Edison will play No. 3 see Tuscarawas Valley in the district final at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon at Minerva. Tuscarawas Valley advanced to Saturday by defeating No. 11 seed Buckeye Local, 68-14, Wednesday night in the district semifinal out at Carrollton after opening the postseason with a 62-22 victory against No. 10 seed Ridgewood last Thursday at home.

“We scrimmaged Tusky Valley,” Smyth said. “Matt (Ward) is a great coach. He has a great program. That’s basketball country. We scrimmaged them at our place in the fieldhouse before we had the water line break. He is a good coach. He has got a good team. They have a good program. We are excited to be playing them. We are going to get after it.”

Three players produced double digits in points to lead the way offensively for the Wildcats. Individually, senior standout Sophia Henderson, who has scored more than 1,000 points in her illustrious career, delivered a game-high 18 points, to lead the way. Also, Abby Carpenter contributed 13 points, Lacie Pelley tallied 10 and Abby Boka collected eight.

Lydia Fuchs finished with a team-high 11 points to lead the Shamrocks, Lydia Welch chipped in with 10 and Aiva Leasure scored eight.

“Ty (Leach) does a really good job,” Smyth said. “He’s a great man. He does a good job. He is one of the better coaches in the Ohio Valley. I have a lot of respect for him and for his team. His girls played really hard.

“They ran what we expected them to run. They ran a 1-2-2 at the start, but we shot the ball well at the start. We shot them out of their 1-2-2, and they went man. His girls play really hard. I think they are a lot like us. He does a great job.”

The Wildcats were on target from long distance early as Edison’s first three baskets all came from beyond the arc as the girls from Jefferson County tallied a 13-0 run to build a 13-2 advantage. Their advantage grew to 18-5 following a pair of free throws by Kayla Koehnlein, and the victors took a 23-9 lead into the second following three free throws by Henderson with .8 left to play in the first.

“We came out shooting the ball well,” Smyth said. “We had a great first quarter. We scored 23 points. We made a lot of 3s. We got off to a good start. Our defense was turned up. The girls were excited. We played well at the start of the game.”

The Silver-and-Black hit a bit of a lull in the second, however, Edison was able to right the ship as the Wildcats responded with an 11-3 run to extend their advantage out to 34-15 before the girls in green netted the final basket of the quarter as Edison took a 34-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“We had a little bit of a lull in the second quarter,” Smyth said. “They went man, and they were able to speed us up for a couple of minutes. After that, the girls settled down, they knocked down some shots, we got good looks and we were able to execute better.”

It was a similar story in the third as the Wildcats struggled offensively to start the quarter enabling the girls from Belmont County to trim their deficit down to 10 points – 37-27 – forcing Smyth to call a timeout with 2:09 remaining to be played in the quarter.

“They got it down to 10, and I called a timeout,” Smyth said. “I just asked the girls what position would you rather be in? I told them we had to settle down. We were up 10. They settled down, and the lead was 20-15 for the rest of the game. The girls did a good job. They settled down.”

The timeout proved to be effective as Edison responded and ended the quarter on a 7-2 spurt to increase its advantage to 44-29 entering the fourth.

Trailing by 15, Barnesville could have thrown in the towel, however, the Shamrocks refused to go away quietly as they scored the first four points of the fourth to pull within 11 points. Unfortunately for them, the Wildcats answered right back as they ripped off a 9-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 20 points (53-33). Barnesville staged one last push as it scored six-straight points, but it was too little too late.

“We hit some free throws,” Smyth said. “They were able to speed us up. They went zone, and we made some risky passes. I told the girls we had the lead, and we didn’t have to do anything risky. We settled down. We were methodical. We did a good job. We knew if we ran our offense that eventually they were going to have to foul us. Barnesville played hard. They did not make it easy for us.”

Barnesville struggled at the free-throw line as the team made just 3-of-14 shots from the charity stipe. On the other end, Edison made 14-of-21 from the line.

The Wildcats hit six shots from beyond the arc with Henderson making three of them. The Shamrocks made three with Mallory Kiser making two.

“I am never going to tell them not to shoot 3s,” Smyth said. “We live by the 3, and we die by the 3. I believe the team that has the most possessions is going to win, and I think a way you can have the most possessions is by shooting a lot of 3s.”

Barnesville tallied 18 field goals in the loss, while Edison made 17 in the win.

The Trojans (20-4) enter Saturday’s game having won 14-straight games.

“I am going to watch a lot of film,” Smyth said about his plans leading up to the game. “We are going to try and see their tendencies. We are going to do the best we can. We are going to be ready. We are going to come out and play. We are going to give it our all. We are excited for Saturday. We will see what happens.”

One of Tusky Valley’s 20 wins this season came against Indian Creek as the Trojans pulled away and defeated the Redskins, 50-29, Dec. 18 on the road on Coach D Court.

Edison has advanced to the district final this season after falling to West Muskingum, 67-30, in the district semifinals last season.

“I think this is the third time we have made the district final in school history,” Smyth said. “We are 20-2. We had a very-winnable game canceled during the regular season, and it was not made up. If we won that one, we would be 21-2, and we would tie the school record for wins going into the district final. Now, we are going to have to try and tie it in the district final.

“Going into this year, we knew we had a really-good team. We just had to get after it. We had a lot of experience, and it was a matter of put up or shut up for us.”

Edison 54, Barnesville 42

Barnesville 9 8 12 13 – 42

Edison 23 11 10 10 – 54

BARNESVILLE (11-13): Leasure 4 0-0 8, B. Kiser 1 0-0 3, Fuchs 5 1-2 11, Oliver 2 0-2 4, Bliss 0 0-0 0, M. Kiser 2 0-0 6, Welch 4 2-8 10, Anderson 0 0-2 0. TOTALS: 18 3-14 42.

EDISON (20-2): King 0 0-0 0, Boka 2 2-4 7, Pelley 4 1-2 10, A. Casto 0 0-0 0, Rawson 0 0-0 0, Shepherd 0 0-0 0, Carpenter 4 4-8, 13, Henderson 5 5-5 18, Cronin 0 0-0 0, Koehnlein 0 2-2 2, Aguilera 0 0-0 0, Wiedaman 0 0-0 0, Glover 2 0-0 4, G. Casto 0 0-0 0, Ault 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 14-21 54.

3-POINTERS: Barnesville 3 (M. Kiser 2, B. Kiser); Edison 6 (Henderson 3, Boka, Pelley, Carpenter)