STEUBENVILLE — The Catholic Central boys’ basketball team pushed the tempo, Madonna was unable to keep up the pace.

The Crusaders built a 10-point advantage at halftime before outscoring the Blue Dons by 17 points in the third quarter to pull away for an 8-2-53 victory Wednesday night inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

“Give all credit to Weirton Madonna,” Catholic Central (3-2) head coach Don Ogden said. “They played hard. They made a game of it. It was not till later in the game when we pulled away. They have a nice team. They are very young. When you have a coach like George Vargo and his staff, they are only going to get better.

“We started to push the ball. We made some adjustments to our man-to-man. Pregame, we talked about being focused, being disciplined on defense and pushing the ball on offense. There were moments where we didn’t do those things, but for the most part, we did. I am proud of our kids for playing the way they did.”

Catholic Central’s offensive eruption in the third turned a 41-31 lead into a 69-42 advantage going into the fourth. The hosts led by as many as 31 (77-46) in the final quarter.

“We saw them play,” Ogden said about the Blue Dons. “They have a nice squad. They’re young, but they’re skilled. Once they mature and develop, they will be fine.

“We are in the same boat they are in. We’re young. We’re inexperienced. We needed a game like this. It was tight. We had to be focused, and we did that. I couldn’t be prouder of these kids. It was a good win. We were able to get back into the win column. You always want to do that. We have a positive record.”

Four players produced double digits in points for the Blue-and-Gold. Individually, Rahim Mitchell tallied a team-high 26 points, Michael Fabbro and Kolbe Krupp each contributed 16 and Eli Krivoniak collected 12.

Reno Fucardo finished with a game-high 27 points to lead the way offensively for the Blue Dons, while Brennan Gray recorded six. Four other players each scored five points.

The boys from Jefferson County built a 20-15 advantage at the end of the first, and the boys in white increased their advantage to 10 points at halftime.

“We are young and inexperienced,” Ogden said. “The first thing we want to do is compete. We want to really battle. Offensively, we have weapons, but we want to play together as a team offensively and defensively. We want to keep getting better.

“We have emphasized doing the little things like rebounding. We were able to run and push the ball up the court better tonight than we did in our first four games. I am proud of the kids. I am happy we were able to do that. That is something we have emphasized. We did not really push the ball up the court in our previous four games, but we did a great job of it tonight.”

Madonna is scheduled to play Trinity Christian Friday night at home inside the Dube Dome.

Catholic Central is slated to Bellaire at 3 p.m. in the annual Watt/Nese Holiday Classic inside Big Red’s Crimson Center.

Catholic Central 82, Madonna 53

Madonna 15 16 11 11 – 53

Catholic Central 20 21 28 13 – 82

MADONNA (0-3): Wingett 2 0-0 5, Dillon 2 1-2 5, Gray 2 0-0 6, Chiodi 2 0-0 5, Phillips 0 0-0 0, Knox 0 0-0 0, Mulder 0 0-0 0, DeCaria 2 0-0 5, Fuscardo 12 3-12 27, Welch 0 0-0 0, Snodgrass 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22 4=15 53.

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (3-2): Fabbro 7 0-1 16, Bryan 3 2-2 8, Mitchell 11 0-0 26, Rook 0 0-0 0, Cherepko 0 0-0 0, J. Hough 0 0-0 0, E. Krivoniak 5 0-0 12, Krupp 5 3-5 16, Fink 0 0-0 0, Hoover 0 0-0 0, A. Hough 0 2-4 2, D. Krivoniak 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 31 7-12 82.

3-POINTERS: Madonna 5 (Gray 2, Wingett, Chiodi, DeCaria); Catholic Central 11 (Mitchell 4, Krupp 3, Fabbro 2, E. Krivoniak 2)