CHESAPEAKE — I get by with a little help from my friends.

With the Chesapeake defense geared to stop Coal Grove’s leading scorer Chelsea Markins, her Lady Hornet teammates came to the rescue as they held off the Lady Panthers 45-43 Monday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

Markins finished below her scoring average with 13 points, but the rest of the team made some key baskets to help Coal Grove to its 12th win in 15 games.

“Teams focus on Chelsea, but tonight the other girls really picked it up,” Lady Hornets coach Nick Miller said. “Jordyn (Cox) hit some big shots in the third quarter, Samantha Zornes played great defense and Tiffany Wallace hit a big 3-pointer.”

Coupled with Fairland’s 61-60 win over South Point, Coal Grove took over sole possession of first place in the OVC at 7-1.

Besides Markins, Cox finished with 12 points and Samantha Hall had 11 points.

Chesapeake (8-7, 3-5) was led by Sarah Rucker with 17 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Rachel Harris scored 12 points — all in the second half — and Lexy Staton handed out 8 assists.

Brittany Harrison, Markins and Hall scored 4 points each as Coal Grove took a 15-6 lead. Rucker had all of Chesapeake’s points.

The scoring slowed in the second quarter with Coal Grove taking a 23-12 halftime lead.

Harris had 7 points in the third quarter as Chesapeake cut the deficit to 35-27. Cox and Hall scored 5 points each in the quarter.

The lady Panthers came back to take a one-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but Markins hit a 3-pointer and sank 3 of 4 from the foul line as Coal Grove escaped with the win.

“We just hung on. We just went cold and missed some layups and Chesapeake played really hard,” Miller said.

Chesapeake coach John McClung praised his team for its never-say-die effort.

“We played a good second half. We made some adjustments. Katie Bennett did good job on Markins, but their other girls stepped up and hit some big 3s,” McClung said.

“We had a chance at end but couldn’t get a good look at the basket. We can’t seem to put a full game together. The effort was there. We just ran out of time.”

Coal Grove1581210=45

Chesapeake661516=43

COAL GROVE (12-3, 7-1): Tiffany Wallace 0 1 0-0 3, Samantha Zornes 1 0 0-0 2, Brittany Harrison 1 0 2-6 4, Abby Nance 0 0 0-00, Danielle Carpenter 0 0 0-0 0, Chelsea Delong 0 0 0-0 0, Jordyn Cox 1 3 1-2 12, Chelsea Markins 1 2 5-7 13, Samantha Hall 4 0 3-4 11. Totals: 8

6

11-19

45. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.

CHESAPEAKE (8-7, 3-5): Rachel Harris 2 2 2-2 12, Holly Black 1 0 0-0 2, Courtney Heffner 2 0 0-0 4, Katie Bennett 1 0 0-0 2, Lexy Staton 3 0 0-0 6, Sarah Rucker 8 0 1-1 17. Totals; 17

2

3-3 43. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 15. Rebounds: 32 (Rucker 16). Assists: 15 (Staton 8). Steals: 4. Blocked shots: 6 (Rucker 4).