LEAVITTSBURG — The LaBrae Vikings would definitely like to forget the third quarter Thursday night.

Actually, they’d probably like to forget the whole second half.

It was definitely not their night.

For the Brookfield Warriors, they got a steady dose of scoring in that second half to break open what was a close game at the half into a 54-20 beatdown in a Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference, Gray Tier matchup.

“We got on them a little bit at halftime and made some adjustments,” Brookfield coach Ken Forsythe.

“We haven’t played since last Saturday. We were canceled Monday. We haven’t gotten into the flow of playing two games a week yet. It seems like the games are always getting canceled. For us it was just getting into a good enough flow. The second half they came out and played harder.”

That they did, outscoring the Vikings (10-7, 4-6) 34-9 in the second half with six players getting into the scoring column.

The game featured two of the area’s best in Sophia Hook and Laura McCoy.

The two friends were tasked with guarding each other.

Aubrey Reardon led the Warriors (11-3, 6-2) with 16 points. Sophia Hook added 13. Hook averages 17.4 points a game.

All in all, Brookfield made eight 3-pointers that helped extend their lead throughout the second half.

The Warriors made a conscious effort to stop Laura McCoy.

McCoy came into the game averaging 19 points a game. She was held to just six points.

“We know everything revolves around McCoy,” Forsythe said.

“Defensively, it was just about stopping her and seeing if anybody else can beat us. We did a great job playing team defense tonight.”

Early on at least, it was a tight game after one with Brookfield holding just an 8-5 lead.

In the second quarter, the Vikings took a 9-8 lead after buckets from Jahnya Dorsey and McCoy.

From there, back-to-back 3s from Reardon and Anna Reichart gave the Warriors a 14-9 lead that started a 12-2 run to end the first half.

“We missed a lot of easy buckets early,” LaBrae coach Mandy Rowe said.

“Then they got a few second chance opportunities, offensive rebounds, put backs so that kind of put us down. They put a couple of threes in the second quarter.

“At halftime, we’re still in it and then they hit a couple 3s to open that lead up more. We just couldn’t get anything going offensively and then defensively we shut down a little bit. I thought McCoy did a good job on Hook. I thought they guarded each other tremendously. They had other girls step up.”

The third quarter was more of the same after a McCoy’s bucket made it 20-13 early on before Brookfield rolled off the next 16 points with Reardon, Hook, Mikenzie Jumper, and Reichart getting into the scoring column to make it 36-15 after three.

“That’s the key to us,” Forsythe said. “Everybody knows it’s about Sophia. The girls have to step up every night and contribute. They have been and that is what is making everything so much fun right now.”

The Vikings were 2-of-8 from the floor in the quarter with turnovers that broke their will.

“We had some costly turnovers and it turned into fast break layups for them to open the game up,” Rowe said. “They’re a great team. Ken does a great job with them. They work hard.”

The Warriors kept it up in the fourth quarter holding the Vikings to 0-of-6 shooting from the field with LaBrae getting all five of their points from the charity stripe.

Brookfield shot 5-of-10 for the quarter with another quarter of balanced shooting.

“It was balanced,” Forsythe said. “We can play nine. It’s just hard every night to get all nine equal playing time. As coaches, we’re thinking what’s the best way to do this? It’s hard. That’s the problem. They’re all pretty good. That’s the key. They all know their roles though.”

These teams will meet again Saturday afternoon in Brookfield.

“I’m sure they’ll be a little bit more focused on us and looking to beat us this time, so we’ll have to be ready,” Forsythe said.

“We can’t just think we’re gonna get the same matchup we had today.”

“We got one practice and then we’re at their place,” Rowe said. “We’ll see how that goes. Hopefully, a better outcome for us.”