Bellefontaine beat Triad, 40-17, in non-league girls basketball.

“I know I say this over and over,” said Triad Coach Jeff Merklin, “but we have good young ladies who are good athletes. But the truth is that right now our offensive skills are not where they need to be with the kind of schedule we play.”

For the game, the Cardinals (3-8) were 8 of 43 from the field, including 1 of 12 from beyond the 3-point arc.

“I’m thrilled with the effort we showed, holding a very good Bellefontaine team to 40 points in their own house shows just how hard we played on defense and on the glass,” said Merklin. “This team works hard. But at some point in this game, you have to handle the ball well enough to be confident when you go to shoot the thing. The only question for this group is will they continue to work on their skill set the rest of this season, and in the off-season. If they do, success will come.”

Merklin was especially frustrated with his team’s third quarter performance.

“We didn’t shoot the ball at all well the first half, obviously, but we go into the break down only 21-13. Hey, we have a chance to win this game, I’m telling the girls. But the first few minutes of the second half is so vital, and we came out very timid offensively. We didn’t score at all in the quarter, and that was the game,” he said.

Junior Tori Thomas led the Cardinals with 8 points.

Triad hosts Southeastern on Thursday.