WARDSVILLE - The first 1:32 indicated where the game was headed.
The Blair Oaks Falcons scored the first nine points, including four off two turnovers, Tuesday against the Warsaw Wildcats.
That trend continued through the first half as the Falcons scored 23 of their first 40 points off 17 turnovers on their way to a 64-31 win. Blair Oaks forced 26 turnovers in all.
"We really put an emphasis on trying to get out to a fast start and I thought we did that," Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said. "I thought it started with our defense. We were active in our press early, forced some early turnovers. We accomplished that goal."
Blair Oaks defended in the full court for much of the first half, leading to deflections and picked off passes.
A Tim Fick steal and Thomas Verslues layup finished off a 9-0 run in the first 1:32 of the game.
"Tonight we wanted to be more aggressive out of it," Ryan Fick said. "I thought we did a better job at having active hands tonight, got a lot of deflections early on. When we're scoring off of turnovers and getting the tempo in our favor, that's when we're at out best."
Warsaw's first bucket came on a Matt Luebert layup at the 5:45 mark of the first quarter. Luebert was Warsaw's lone double-digit scorer with 11 points.
Blair Oaks scored nine straight points once again and led 24-6 after eight minutes of play.
Jason Rackers, who finished with 10 points, got a layup off a Warsaw turnover to begin the second quarter.
Verslues and Ben Ward each added a layup off Blair Oaks steals in the first 1:06 of the second quarter. Verslues was 6-of-9 from the filed to lead Blair Oaks with 16 points.
Turnovers began to be an issue for Blair Oaks in the next two minutes as the Wildcats scored four points off three turnovers. Six of the Falcons' 13 turnovers came in the second quarter.
"I think sometimes we get careless with the ball," Fick said. "A lot of them are aggressive turnovers where we're trying to pass the ball up the floor to a guy in transition. That was the case tonight, we had several turnovers that way. You can kind of live with aggressive turnovers but you still want to make better decisions, and that's one of the things that we've got to get better at."
Blair Oaks still got its lead to 40-15 by halftime, giving the Falcons an opportunity to use their entire bench Tuesday.
Braydan Pritchett scored eight of the Falcons' 28 bench points, making three of his first four 2-pointers.
"It was nice to be able to get a lot of guys in tonight and see them contribute up and down the line," Fick said.
"It's always nice as a coach to see that."
In the end, 12 of the 14 Falcons scored.
"They were ready for their opportunity and that's what we always talk about," Fick said. "Those guys come to practice and work hard everyday. We talk about taking advantage of opportunities and those guys did that tonight."
Tuesday was the Falcons' third straight win since falling 71-66 to Rolla in the St. James Tournament championship game.
Since that loss, Blair Oaks has won by an average of 22.7 points, including a 13-point victory against No. 1 Southern Boone.
"I think we've played well over the last couple weeks," Fick said. "I think there's still things we need to work on."
Blair Oaks is 16-3 overall and 3-0 in the Tri-County Conference entering Saturday's game against Union in the Central Bank Shootout at Rackers Fieldhouse. Game time is 4:30 p.m.
"It's nice to go over there and see a team from outside of our area, see a different style of basketball," Fick said. "As we continue the stretch run here, hopefully it prepares us for the postseason."
In Tuesday's JV game, Blair Oaks posted a 58-13 victory. Dru Rackers had 14 points, while Trent Martin added 12 for the Falcons (12-1).