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Big Red beats Devils

BASKETBALL MOVE — Steubenville’s Jack Marx pivots to the hoop against St. Clairsville. (Matthew Peaslee)

STEUBENVILLE — No matter how much pressure the Steubenville boys basketball team applied against St. Clairsville, the Red Devils wouldn’t back down.

But in the end of the Division II sectional semifinal at the Crimson Center, the Big Red speed, size and athleticism proved to be too much for the visitors.

The No. 1 seeded Steubenville boys earned a 66-58 win over St. Clairsville to set up a sectional final date against Buckeye Local.

The Panthers held off Carrollton, 55-53, in the other semifinal.

“We’ll take the win,” said Big Red coach Mike Haney. “You’d rather win and move on then pack yourself up and call it a season. As coaches, we’re happy with the win, but we’re not happy with some of the little mistakes we made throughout the course of the game. We could’ve played better and we need to fix that before our next game.”

Early on, Steubenville (19-5) knew St. Clairsville (8-14) would have an answer for everything it threw at the Red Devils.

“They didn’t go away,” Haney said. “That comes from those 3-pointers. They like to shoot the long ball. It always keeps you in. Even in the first quarter, it seemed like we outplayed them because we were scoring in transition and moving freely up and down the court, but we gave them some open looks from behind the arc and they made them.”

Big Red had an 18-14 lead after one and took a 32-22 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

The Red Devils knocked down a total of eight 3-pointers, including four from Matthew Greenwood.

“I thought our kids did a really good job,” said St. Clairsville coach Kim Clifford. “It came down to a few shots here and there. We needed Steubenville to be off their game just a little bit and they weren’t. As far as our effort and understanding of what we had to do, I was well pleased.

“We didn’t have great matchups with anyone, but I thought that our kids had confidence after the way we played them at our place (a 65-46 Steubenville win on Jan. 14). We were familiar with them, but we were stuck in some spots.”

Steubenville held a double-digit advantage for most of the second half. Still, the Red Devils showed signs of life in the fourth quarter.

A 3-pointer by Justin Lane at the 5:52 mark of the final frame cut the Big Red lead to five at 53-48.

After that Steubenville slowed its pace. For 35 seconds at the top of the key, Big Red’s Shyoun Petteway held the ball as the offense set us to secure the victory.

Minutes later, Petteway’s open lay up at the 2:10 mark put Steubenville back on top by 10 (60-50). Petteway finished with 13 points and Charles Reeves had 16 points, including two monstrous dunks in the second half. Also for Big Red, Alec Davis scored nine and Isaiah Lee-Granatir added seven.

St. Clairsville’s Mike Scarnecchia led all scorers with 18 points. Greenwood finished with 16 and Matthew Busby added nine.

“It’s easy to be ‘rah-rah’ when things are going well, and our three seniors were absolutely fantastic with their leadership and attitude,” Clifford said. “We had some bumps in the road, but they never wavered. They were as big of leaders as any team I’ve had.”

Steubenville now turns its attention to fellow Jefferson County foe Buckeye Local. Big Red defeated the revamped Panthers, 90-56, in the OVAC 4A semifinal on Feb. 14.

In that contest, Buckeye Local’s Drake Novak scored 27 points and Shane Millard added 19.

“We get three days to practice and prepare,” Haney said. “We’ve seen them once, so we’ll watch the film again. Novak and Millard had really big games against us. Plus, (Matt) Carducci is a big body inside and we have to be ready for that.”

The game is slated for Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Crimson Center. With a potential win against Buckeye Local, Steubenville will reach 20 victories on the season and be undefeated at home for the 2016-17 campaign.

“Those are big goals for us,” Haney said. “It’s a sectional final and you want to be able to close that out at home with a win, especially for the seniors.”

Steubenville 66, St. Clairsville 58

St. Clairsville 14 8 19 17 – 58

Steubenville 18 14 19 15 – 66

ST. CLAIRSVILLE: Busby 3 2-2 9, Williams 0 4-6 4, Greenwood 6 0-0 16, Lane 1 0-0 3, Bloomquist 1 0-0 3, Heatherington 2 1-2 5, Scarnecchia 6 5-5 18. TOTALS: 19 12-15 58. 3-pointers: Greenwood 4, Busby, Lane, Bloomquist, Scarnecchia.

STEUBENVILLE: Petteway 5 2-4 13, J. Davis 1 1-2 4, Lee-Granatir 3 0-0 7, Zimmerman 1 2-2 4, Reeves 5 6-9 16, Smith 1 0-0 3, Marx 2 0-0 5, Gulan 1 1-2 3, Robinson 0 0-0 0, A. Davis 4 1-4 9, Roundtree 0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 23 15-25 66. 3-pointers: Petteway, J. Davis, Lee-Granatir, Smith, Marx.

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