TENNERTON – The seventh-ranked Buckhannon-Upshur Lady Bucs used a 21-0 run to start the game against the Elkins Tigers en route to an easy 67-37 victory in Big 10 Conference action Tuesday night at the high school.

Elkins didn’t score their first point until 1:02 into the second quarter and B-U led by as many as 38 before settling on the 30-point win.

“We put Elkins away early, and that is what we needed to do,” remarked Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Rob Kittle. “This is our fifth game in eight days, so it was huge for us to get off to a good start and let us rest our legs because it has been a tough grind for us. I was happy with the way we came out and jumped on them early. We were able to get some easy shots early and get off to a good start and were able to put it in cruise control after that. We needed a night like this.”

Gabby Parke led the Lady Buc with 18 points, going eight-for-10 from the floor, and added five rebounds and three steals.

“As a team, we really aren’t concerned with who has the most points as long as we get the win,” stated Parke after the victory. “We played a good game tonight. I thought our defense led to a lot of our offense tonight.”

The Lady Bucs had 20 steals on 23 Elkins turnovers.

Kittle complimented his sophomore guard for her play against Elkins.

“Gabby did a great job of running the court of us,” noted Kittle. “She hit a couple of key threes for us as well.”

Alyssa Abel got the ball rolling for Buckhannon-Upshur with an uncontested lay-up just seven seconds into the game.

Oliva Ellis, who finished with 10 points, turned in an old-fashioned three-point play when she made her free throw after being fouled on her lay-up, treating the Lady Bucs to a 13-0 lead.

A lay-up by Kenna Maxwell wrapped up the first quarter giving B-U a 17-0 advantage.

Shelby McDaniels made an outside jumper, and Parke scored on a lay-up to start the second stanza giving B-U their 21-0 lead.

Madeline Belan finally put Elkins on the board with a putback with 6:58 showing up the second-quarter clock.

Abel scored from underneath, and Parke uncorked a trey after that to give the Lady Bucs a 26-2 lead with 5:32 remaining in the half.

Maxwell made a lay-up and sank her free throw after being fouled to end the first-half scoring giving the Lady Bucs a 34-8 advantage at the intermission.

Leading 44-18, Kendal Currence put in consecutive baskets to up the B-U lead to 48-18 with 1:41 left in the third quarter.

B-U owned a 52-25 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Bucs opened the fourth quarter on an 11-0 run for their biggest lead of the game, at 63-25.

Elkins ended the contest on a 12-4 run.

The victory over Elkins came on the heels of a 28-point road victory over East Fairmont Monday night as Kittle complimented his team on the back-to-back wins.

“I thought the team played well,” concluded Kittle. “We did a great job of seeing the floor and making some nice passes. We had some exceptional assists that led to some easy baskets for us. I am very happy with how we have played this week as a team and how we have shared the ball.”

Elkins didn’t have a scorer reach double digits as Celia Ricottilli led them with nine points.

Elkins dropped to 5-12 on the year overall and 1-9 in the Big 10 Conference.

The Lady Bucs, who improved to 16-4 overall and 10-2 in the Big 10 Conference, will be back in action Thursday at Grafton. That game will begin at 7:30 p.m.