WEST PORTSMOUTH — There was nothing cheap about this win for the Portsmouth West Senators.

West fought off an upset bid by the Coal Grove Hornets Tuesday in a non-league, 56-53.

“We made them earn every point. We had a hand in their face on every shot,” Hornets coach Mike Waller said.

“Our kids did the best they could. West is a very athletic team and our kids just battled the whole game.”

The Hornets had their best shooting performance of the season as they went 18 of 32 from 2-point range (43 percent) and 4 of 11 from behind the arc.

But Waller was happier about the 17 turnovers.

“We handled their pressure pretty well. We picked up our ball-handling quite a bit from Saturday,” Waller said.

Tyler Branch scored 21 points to lead the Hornets Chris Dirling had 15 points.

Shea Lauder and Boyce Jordan scored 23 points each for West (3-0).

Jordan had 10 points in the first quarter put West up 18-13.

The Senators were up 29-21 at the break when Coal Grove got 9 points from Branch and 7 points for Dirling including two 3-pointers as Coal Grove took a 40-38 lead.

The lead went back-and-forth at the end of the fourth quarter before the Senators got some clutch foul shot.

Coal Grove1381913=53

Ports. West1811918=56

COAL GROVE (0-3): Zach Murphy 2 0 1-2 5, Chris Dirling 1 4 1-3 15, Eric Davidson 1 0 0-0 2, Tyler Branch 9 0 3-4 21, Adam Bare 4 0 0-0 8, Simon Hall 0 0 0-0 0, Alex Johnson 0 0 0-0 0, Shannon Goodwin 1 0 0-0 2, Jacob Browning 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-43

(4-11)

5-9

53. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: Branch. Assists: 17 (Bare 6, Murphy 5). Turnovers: 17.

PORTSMOUTH WEST (3-0): Nathan Brandenburg 1 0 4-6 6, Matt Simpson 0 0 0-2 0, Boyce Jordan 11 0 1-3 23, Shea Lauder 6 2 5-6 23, Austin Seevers 0 0 1-2 1, Alfie Bricker 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 19

2

12-20

56. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.