Southern’s Allyssa Shroades tries to save the ball as Columbiana’s Evy Rapp looks on Thursday at Columbiana.

COLUMBIANA — Southern Local’s girls basketball team has put up some noticeable offensive numbers this season but the defense seems up to the task so far in the early part of the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference schedule.

The Indians took a big step toward in pushing for an EOAC title with a 39-23 win over Columbiana on Thursday.

The Indians are 10-0 and 6-0 in the league. Southern has averaged 65 points in the league games while holding opponents to average of 16. Overall Southern has outscored its opponents 660-187 on the season.

Columbiana, 6-2 overall and 5-1 in the EOAC, came in as the defending outright EOAC champion and had a 21-game league winning streak snapped.

Southern Local standout freshman Katie Kellogg was limited to a season-low nine points thanks in part to strong defense by Columbiana’s Megan Moser, but other Indians picked up the slack. Senior Allyssa Shroades sparked the offense with 13 points, while senior Makenna Jones added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Kellogg supported the team effort with 14 rebounds, four assists and three steals. Kalayah Crute cupped in five points and eight rebounds.

Columbiana led 14-7 at the end of the first quarter but offense was hard to find the rest of the way. The Indians outscored the Clippers 18-4 in the third quarter to pull away. Columbiana’s first point in that frame didn’t come until the 2:59 mark of the third quarter on a free throw.

For the Clippers, Annah Clemmer led the way with 10 points.

Southern only has one more league game to complete the first cycle (Dec. 22 at Wellsville). The Indians host Heartland Christian on Saturday.

Columbiana is at Mineral Ridge on Saturday and will wrap up the calendar year with a home game against Lisbon on Dec. 23.

The Indians have just two non-league contests left outside of the two OVAC games they will be required to play.

SO: 7-12-18-2–39

CO: 14-2-4-3–23

SOUTHERN SCORING: Katie Kellogg 3-2-9, Allyssa Shroades 3-4-13, Kalayah Crute 2-1-5, Makenna Jones 4-4-12, Hailey Maines 0-0-0, Haylee Kellogg 0-0-0, Raelea Carosiello 0-0-0, Emma Boyle 0-0-0, Maddy Jones 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 12, 11-15: 39.

COLUMBIANA SCORING: Evy Rapp 3-1-7, Megan Moser 0-0-0, Annah Clemmer 4-0-10, Camille Jeffries 1-0-2, Tori Waselich 1-0-2, Sydney Spaite 0-0-0, Lexi Davis 0-2-2. TEAM TOTALS: 9, 3-8: 23.

Three-point goals: Southern 4 (Shroades 3, K. Kellogg), Columbiana 2 (Clemmer).