BERLIN CENTER — The Western Reserve Blue Devils girls basketball team is trying to fine tune things. With just a handful of games remaining in their regular season, they are working on positioning themselves for one more huge game with league-leading McDonald and seeding for the tournaments.

“We kind of looked at it after the first time we played McDonald that this is probably round one of three, if we both do what we are supposed to do,” Blue Devils coach Steve Miller said. “The tournament draw comes out this Sunday and there is no surprise that McDonald and us are going to be the top two seeds. But in girls basketball, you have to come out and play.”

“We’re trying to base our team off of more fundamentals and focusing on getting better,” senior Brooke Morris said. “From bouncing back from that big game (a lopsided loss to Napoleon last week), it really opened our eyes to understand what we need to work on as a team and individuals.”

On Monday night, the Blue Devils disposed of the Lowellville Rockets in quick fashion, knocking off the Rockets, 88-24. The victory improves the Devils to 14-3 on the season, and 9-1 in the MVAC. The Rockets fall to 4-10, 1-9 in the league.

The Blue Devils led from tip-off to final buzzer as they held a 46-3 lead at halftime and a 65-9 advantage at the end of the third quarter. To the Rockets’ credit, they kept battling the entire game and closed the contest with a 6-5 scoring run.

“I like the way defensively we came out with our intensity tonight,” Miller said. “I think it was three points at halftime or something like that. Then they (Lowellville) made some shots. We’re going to hang our hat on defense.

“Defense is consistency, and if you get it done night-in and night-out, fundamentally being in position, communicating and jumping to the ball, boxing out and rebounding, you’re going to have games where you throw it in. We can also score this year. So with the ability to score and if the defense is consistent, it gives you a good chance. Strong defensive teams always have an advantage come tournament time.”

The Devils took advantage of their pronounced size advantage in the paint to force the Rockets to shoot low percentage shots from the outside the whole night. Offensively, the Devils put three players in double-digit scoring as they also hit on 8 of 20 three-point attempts.

Other than McDonald, the Blue Devils have only lost two games on the season to what were bigger, and very strong programs. They dropped their opener to Cornerstone Christian and then last week to Napoleon by 30 points in Millersburg.

“We’re just trying to become a better all-around team,” Morris said. “We’re trying to work on what we need to fix to be able to get through McDonald and the tougher teams in the tournament to put ourselves in the same position as last year and get even farther.

“We wanted to challenge ourselves with the schedule this year. We got to play Cornerstone Christian and we still have Columbiana and Struthers on the schedule. And then another game with McDonald and, of course, Napoleon. These are games that are preparing us for the tournament.”

Miller also credits the special bond he has with his four senior players — Brook Morris, Alyssa Serensky, Laura Sigworth and Emma Heater — for their leadership this season.

“It’s a cliche to say this, but I’m going to miss these girls when they are gone. I’ve been close with these girls since elementary school. This is kind of my first group that I focused on. These girls hold a special place in my heart and they are good kids.”

For the extremely young Rockets, who start two freshman and two sophomores, the game was a learning experience.

“That’s the thing when you’re trying to get these girls to keep positive and then you hit teams like this. It’s difficult to keep positive. But I told them to put this game in the rearview mirror. End of our season has winnable games so we are just going to keep moving forward and get ready for tournament time,” Rockets coach Lisa Modelski said.