TENNERTON – It’s hard to find fault with a 30-point win against an outmatched opponent, but Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Rob Kittle wasn’t exactly pleased with his Lady Bucs’ 51-21 victory over the two-win Braxton County Eagles Saturday night at the high school.

The Class AAAA No. 8 Lady Bucs were never challenged by the Class AA school, but despite the large margin of victory against the Eagles, the Lady Bucs shot just 25.7 percent from the floor (18-for-70) and were outrebounded by a 52-49 margin.

Kittle felt his team never played the game with much enthusiasm, but with a 3-0 week now behind them, including a big road win against University, he was willing to let his team slide this one time.

“We won by 30, but all-in-all, this was a very uninspired effort by us,” stated Kittle. “I was disappointed that we weren’t more mentally disciplined to come out and play better than we did. We knew we were the better team, but we simply didn’t play up to the level that I expect us to play up to. I am never going to complain about a 30-point win, but it just felt like were just weren’t focused on playing like we are capable of playing. That said, it’s been a long week and we picked up a couple of key wins, so I can let it slide a little bit, but it’s still disappointing to be as flat as we were tonight.”

Braxton County was a replacement game in B-U’s schedule; they had been slated to visit Martinsburg on Saturday, but Martinsburg opted out of the game several weeks ago electing to play in a tournament instead.

Buckhannon-Upshur scored the first nine points of the game, and after a Braxton County free throw, they scored the final 10 points of the first quarter for a 19-1 lead.

The B-U defense turned over Braxton County 17 times in the first quarter.

The Lady Bucs finished with 28 steals on 40 Braxton County turnovers in the game.

A pair of free throws from Kendal Currence gave B-U a 25-3 lead and a lay-up by Kenna Maxwell treated the Lady Bucs to a 34-9 advantage during play in the second quarter.

Buckhannon-Upshur went into the half up 36-12.

The Lady Bucs started the third quarter on an 8-0 run capped off by a Maxwell lay-up, making it a 44-12 game, B-U’s biggest lead of the contest at 32 points.

B-U took a 46-15 lead into the fourth quarter.

With both teams playing their benches in the final quarter, Braxton County scored six straight points midway through the stanza, making it a 48-21 contest.

The Lady Bucs ended the game with a free throw and a basket from Rosie Shackleford for the final 51-21 score.

Currence just missed out on a double-double, leading B-U in scoring with 16 points while collecting nine rebounds. Maxwell was the other Lady Buc to reach double figures with 13 points while collecting four steals.

“I just played with confidence tonight,” Maxwell said. “It is about hitting that first shot and I was able to do that against Braxton. We are playing good basketball and I think that has to do with the team playing with confidence.”

Lainey Hunt led Braxton County with seven points. The Eagles fell to 2-12 on the season. The Lady Bucs improved to 12-3 on the year.

They will return to action at home on Tuesday hosting Bridgeport. The game will start at 7:30 p.m.