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CCHS stops Bears

NEW MANCHESTER — Often, high school coaches have a lot more to be concerned about than just the plays drawn up on a chalkboard.

Saturday night was a good example of that as first-year Steubenville Catholic Central coach Chris Tarquinio went into the game at Oak Glen with his team coming off an emotional high from a win over rival Madonna.

In addition, Saturday’s contest will be followed next Tuesday with another rivalry against Toronto and he had thoughts that his team could come out flat against the high scoring Golden Bears.

That wasn’t the case as the Crusaders took charge in the first half and carried the momentum through the rest of the game until a late Oak Glen rally made the final score, 50-42, look closer than the game actually was.

“The kids came out to play tonight,” Tarquinio explained. “We had an emotional game against a rival, Weirton Madonna. It was a big win last night (69-64). Tonight we carried it over.”

Oak Glen jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter but A. J. Connor’s goal with 1:36 left in the first quarter put the Crusaders on top 9-8 and they never relinquished the lead the rest of the way.

“We started out a little slower than we’d like,” Tarquinio continued. “As a coach you always like to start a little faster. We got the lead and then controlled the rest of the game. The guys were patient and controlled the ball. We really didn’t make too many mistakes tonight.”

The Crusader defense came up big in the first half holding the hosts to just 11 points, including a meager three in the second period. Central had a 23-11 lead at the half.

“To hold this team down to 42 points in a game is pretty impressive,” said Tarquinio, whose club now is 9-7. “Hats off to our kids. They were determined.

“We had a shoot-around this morning and we told them we can’t have a letdown tonight. After a big game last night and a big game next Tuesday as well against Toronto.

“This game was sandwiched in between. That’s one thing we preach. We can’t look ahead. We look at every game. The game on your schedule is the most important game and tonight was our most important game and we went 1-0 tonight.”

The Golden Bears have been hit by the flu bug this week and now have lost five games in a row. Senior guard and leading scorer Logan Taylor sat out the second game in a row with illness and another senior veteran, Noah Feicht, started the game but became ill and didn’t play in the second half.

“The sickness hurt us, but Steubenville Central is a good team,” said Golden Bear coach, Jerry Everly. “They play tough zone D and forced us to move the ball some. We weren’t patient. A lot of times we started jacking up shots. When we were patient there in the fourth quarter we moved the ball a lot a lot better and got good shots.

“The guys that were in there hustled and did a good job of trying to come back. They played well. We got some good basketball from a couple of sophomores that play on our jayvee team, Wyatt Wiley, Jarrett Gittings and Alex Staub. With the illness and foul trouble, they got in and did well.”

Wiley hit a long three for the only points Oak Glen scored in the second quarter. Gittings scored five points and pulled down two rebounds. And the 6-5 Staub started the second half and hit a 15-foot jumper, grabbed a rebound and blocked two shots.

The Crusaders built their biggest lead of 18 points with an 8-2 run to start the second half. That made the score 31-13 with 4:23 showing on the clock.

From there, the Golden Bears outscored the Crusaders 29-19 the rest of the game and clawed their way to within six points when Chris Kokoski drove the lane for a layup to make the score 48-42 with 25 seconds left.

Crusader senior, Jake Bolger hit two free throws with 16 seconds left to close out the scoring.

Conner finished with a game high 14 points while Bolger and Donnie Vanderborne each scored 11 points. Another senior, Austin Fowkes, who had a double-double Friday night against Madonna almost did it again, but came up a little short with 8 points and 9 rebounds.

While the Crusaders are hosting the Red Knights Tuesday, the Golden Bears will continue the homestand entertaining Bellaire.

Steubenville Catholic 50, Oak Glen 42

CCHS 12 11 12 15 — 50

Oak Glen 8 3 15 16 — 42

CCHS (9-7): Connor 5 4-4 14, Kilonsky 3 0-0 6, Argentine 0 0-0 0, Bolger 3 3-4 11, Fowkes 4 0-2 8, Vanderborne 4 3-7 11. TOTALS: 19 10-17 50. 3-pointers: Bolger 2; Rebounds: 19 (Fowkes 9); turnovers 10.

OAK GLEN (6-8): Wiley 1 0-0 3, Rice 3 0-0 9, Feicht 2 0-0 5, Kokoski 5 0-0 13, Theiss 1 1-2 3, Conner 1 0-0 2, Gittings 2 0-0 5, Staub 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 16 1-2 42. 3-pointers: Rice 3, Kokoski 3, Wiley, Feicht, Gittings; Rebounds: 23 (Theiss 10); Turnovers: 17.

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