STEUBENVILLE — Wins don’t have to be pretty.

This one certainly wasn’t, but the Catholic Central girls’ basketball got the job done on both ends of the court en route to a 44-25 victory against Oak Glen Monday night inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

The Crusaders limited the Golden Bears to single digits offensively in all four quarters, while the girls in white built a 20-point advantage in the fourth.

“A lot of it might have been we were playing on our own court,” Catholic Central (3-2) head coach Rocky Bragg said. “We had the homecourt advantage. We came out in something different. We matched up. That is something Oak Glen hasn’t seen from us in years. It caught them off guard. It made them change their gameplan.

“We played man well. We knew we would fall back to what we do best and that is the 1-2-2 trap. We blocked their passing lanes. We played big today. We got a lot of tips. We got some steals.

“They are a good team. They are extremely well coached. Coach Wells is a good friend of mine. He knows what he is doing. We had to be prepared. We had to play the right way. We had to play our best game.

“We were able to get out in transition. We played too fast at times. We had to put on the breaks to kill the clock.”

The visitors from Hancock County struggled shooting from the floor all night long.

“We took open shots all night long, but we could not hit anything,” Oak Glen (2-1) head coach Bill Wells said. “Other than that semifinal against Buckeye Local, we have not shot that bad in a long time. Our offense just was not good.

“Defensively, I was pleased with our effort. They are a good team, and we held them to 44 points.

“It wasn’t our night offensively. We haven’t shot that bad in three years.”

Mara Delaney delivered a game-high 15 points to lead the way for Catholic Central. Delaney was the only player in the game to produce double digits in points. Aurie Hoover recorded eight points to held the cause for the Crusaders.

“Catholic Central is a good team,” Wells said. “They played really well tonight. They did a really good job. Rocky does a really good job with his team.”

Haylee Clark tallied a team-high eight points to lead the way for Oak Glen, while Ella Stewart collected six points on a pair of 3-pointers.

The hosts led 9-6 at the end of the first quarter, and the Blue-and-Gold extended their advantage to 23-13 at halftime.

“They run a 1-2-2, and we run a 1-2-2,” Wells said. “It was just one of those nights. We are just going to chalk it up to we could not do anything right. We got some steals, and then we would turn the ball right back over.

“The effort was there. I cannot get upset about that. Girls don’t miss shots on purpose. They don’t turn the ball over on purpose. Our effort was Ok, but it just one of those nights. They won a lot of the 50-50 balls. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort on our part, we just could not get the ball.

“They made some tough shots tonight. They shot the ball well. We didn’t. When one team is on and the other is not, you are going to end up with a 19 or 20-point game.”

The Crusaders committed five turnovers on their first five possessions of the third quarter. The Golden Bears scored the first five points of the quarter to pull within 23-18, however, the victors ended the quarter on a 14-2 run to build a 37-20 advantage after three quarters of play.

“That’s Oak Glen,” Bragg said asked if the Golden Bears did anything unexpected in the game. “They get into your face. They play fast. We had to be prepared. Fortunately for us, we played two teams with a similar style. Their gameplan was exactly the same. We faced one Saturday (Harrison Central) and one Monday. We didn’t have a practice in between.

“We succeeded tonight where we didn’t Saturday. We came in with the right frame of mind. We executed. We are a solid team. We played together. We have good leadership.”

The hosts outscored the visitors, 7-5, in the fourth to account for the final score.

“We have only played bigger schools,” Bragg said. “We play a tough schedule. We have only played against 4A schools.”

Catholic Central is scheduled to play Brooke Wednesday night at home.

“That’s a good record,” Bragg said. “I saw we were in second place in the OVAC. We play a solid schedule. We are going to have to get wins when we can. We have to continue to make good things happen.”

Oak Glen is slated to make another trip down to Steubenville Thursday as the Golden Bears will take on Big Red inside the Crimson Center.

“Every time we play Steubenville, and we play them every year, every time we play them they are more athletic than we are,” Wells said. “They play hard. Their man-to-man halfcourt defense is tremendous. We have watched film on them. They lost three really good players from last year, and they have had some younger girls step up and fill those roles.

“We are going to have to be ready. We have to hit the reset button. We are going to get after it at practice tomorrow and Wednesday. They are going to be physical practices. We are going to have to replicate their physicality.

“You got to bed and wake up and it is a new day. We are just going to have to get back after it.”

Catholic Central 44, Oak Glen 25

Oak Glen 6 7 7 5 – 25

Catholic Central 9 14 14 7 – 44

OAK GLEN (2-1): Everett 0 0-0 0, Balch 0 1-2 1, Wells 0 0-0 0, Clark 4 0-3 8, Polly 0 0-0 0, K. Vick 0 0-0 0, T. Vick 0 0-0 0, Craig 1 0-0 2, McConnachie 2 0-2 4, H. Stewart 1 0-0 2, E. Stewart 2 0-0 6. TOTALS: 10 1-7 25.

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (3-2): Cherepko 1 0-0 2, Rohde 3 1-3 7, Balabin 1 0-0 2, Rigaud 0 0-0 0, Fink 1 0-2 3, Hoover 3 2-2 8, Delaney 7 2-4 15, Bolster 2 1-2 5. TOTALS: 18 6-13 44.

3-POINTERS: Oak Glen 2 (E. Stewart 2); Catholic Central 2 (Fink, Delaney)