STRONG TO THE HOOP — Buckeye Local’s Alyssa Dailey goes up for a layup over Union Local’s Alli Kelleway during Wednesday’s district semifinal game. - Andrew Grimm

CADIZ — The Union Local Jets flew in to Harrison Central High School and left with a definitive victory over the Buckeye Local Panthers, 56-20, behind a balanced scoresheet and big second-half push.

“We advance. I thought we were a little sloppy at times,” Union Local head coach Scooter Tolzda said. “It wasn’t kosher. But I thought we came out in the second half and cleaned it up a little bit.”

Union Local led 34-15 at halftime, but pulled away with a 21-3 third-quarter scoring differential.

The Jets were led by Laken Vinskovich’s 17 points, eight of which came in the third quarter. Union Local got between nine and six points from five different players- Ameera Saunders, Myah Martin, Ella PIetranton, Delaney Butler and Teegan Day.

For the Panthers, senior Alyssa Dailey led the way with eight points. Freshman Brooke Driscoll scored six for Buckeye Local, who were seeded 11th in the bracket.

“The final score wasn’t what we wanted but our girls played hard, especially a lot of our young girls, and I thought our seniors did a great job of being leaders,” Buckeye Local head coach Bailey McBeth said.

“Not the way they wanted their senior year to end but we saw a lot of toughness this season that we can build off of next year. Especially in this game- that’s a heck of a team and I thought we played hard against them even if the score didn’t turn out how we wanted it.”

Union Local, the top seed in the district, now looks forward to a Saturday matchup against No. 2 Martins Ferry, whom they will face at 1 p.m. inside Ohio University Eastern’s ECO Center.

It will be the first matchup between the two teams this season.

“We know what’s in front of us Saturday in the District Championship, Martins Ferry,” Tolzda said. “We know what’s staring us down and we’re going to have to bring our A-game because we have a very good opponent who has their eye on the regional. We’re going to have to see if we can play spoiler.”

Ohio Division V Eastern District Semifinal

(at Harrison Central High School)

Union Local 56, Buckeye Local 20

BUCKEYE LOCAL – Driscoll 2 2-2 6; Dailey 2 3-4 8; Roset 1 1-2 4; Becker 1 0-0 2; Totals 6 6-8 20. UNION LOCAL – Saunders 3 1-2 7; Vinskovich 8 1-3 17; Martin 1 4-4 6; Pietranton 3 3-4 9; Butler 3 0-0 9; Day 3 1-1 8; Totals 21 10-14 56.

Three-point goals: Buckeye Local 2 (Dailey, Roset). Union Local 4 (Butler 3, Day).