SOUTH POINT — The time to worry about the South Point offense is when the Lady Pointers are on defense.

Forcing 22 turnovers that included 11 steals, the Lady Pointers beat the Chesapeake Lady Panthers 59-35 Thursday in a battle for first place in the Ohio Valley Conference.

“We needed to realize our defense is where our offense comes from,” said Lady Pointers coach Dave Adams.

“The second half we just stepped it up and tried to get out in the passing lanes. Chesapeake played hard and shot well the first half.”

South Point is now 6-3 overall but 3-0 in the OVC. Chesapeake fell to 3-1 in the league and 4-4 on the season.

“They have a really nice team. They’re very athletic,” said Chesapeake coach Sammy Gue. “We didn’t rebound well and we turned it over too much.”

South Point had a 34-31 rebound advantage, but it was 20-14 at the half and offensive rebounds for the game were 18-9.

Tinesha Taylor had 12 rebounds for South Point with eight coming on the offensive glass.

“Tinesha rebounded well and controlled the inside,” said Adams.

Kayla Fletcher scored 20 points to go with four steals. Jalynn Bradburn had 18 points, four steals and seven rebounds.

Kimmie Bennett topped Chesapeake with 12 points and Sarah Mayo scored 10.

Ericka Leighty’s layup put South Point up to start the game but Rachel Harris hit a 3-pointer for Chesapeake.

A steal and layup by Bradburn put the Lady Pointers back on top only to have Bennett hit a 10-footer off a pass from Mayo and the Lady Panthers were up 5-4 at the 5:27 mark.

It was their last lead of the game.

Bradburn hit a 15-footer and Fletcher had a layup to make it 8-5. Chesapeake did tie the game 11-11 on a layup by Mayo, but Taylor’s foul shot made it 12-11 to end the quarter.

Chesapeake was down 21-15 after a baseline jumper by Courtney Heffner at the 4:05 mark.

However, South Point used a put-back by Taylor, three straight baskets by Fletcher and a layup by Leighty to go up 29-17.

Bennett’s shot jumper just before the end of the half made it 31-24.

South Point created eight more turnovers in the third quarter — they didn’t commit one — as they took total control.

The Lady Pointers went on an 8-0 run to begin the quarter and it was 39-24 and ended the stanza with a 53-32 lead.

Adams had his team spend most of the fourth quarter running their offense and taking time off the clock.

“The two things we had to improve on were defense and taking care of the ball and we did that a little better,” said Adams.

Chesapeake111383=35

South Point1219226=59

CHESAPEAKE (4-4, 3-1): Rachel Harris 0 1 0-0 3, Courtney Heffner 3 0 0-0 6, Allison Chapman 0 0 1-2 1, Sarah Mayor 1 2 2-2 10, Kimmie Bennett 5 0 2-2 12, Paige Nelson 0 0 0-0 0, Cassie Rucker 0 0 1-2 1, Kristen Webb 0 0 2-2 2, Kristen Delpapa 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12-37 8-10 35. 3-point goals: 3-7. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None. 9-17=26 (Heffner 6, Mayor 6, Chapman 5). Team rebounds: 5. Assists: 5 (Mayo 3). Steals: 6 (Chapman 2). Turnovers: 22.

SOUTH POINT (6-3, 3-0): T’Ann Mayo 3 0 0-0 6, Kayla Fletcher 9 0 2-2 20, Ericka Leighty 2 0 0-0 4, Jalynn Bradburn 7 1 1-2 18, Tinesha Taylor 4 0 1-2 9, Megan Kelley 0 0 0-2 0, Tara Bailey 0 0 0-0 0, Ashley Goodall 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 27-61 4-11 59. 3-point goals: 1-7. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 18-13=31 (Taylor 12, Bradburn 7, Fletcher 5). Team rebounds: 3. Assists: 5 (Bradburn 2). Steals: 11 (Bradburn 4, Fletcher 4).