LAYUP — Big Red’s Nylah McShan puts up a layup against Indian Creek on Monday night. - Andrew Grimm

The Big Red girls basketball team combined all three on Monday night.

Steubenville went on the road to Indian Creek for a battle of teams poised to be in the OVAC tournament next month, came out flying and did not look back on the way to an impressive 69-31 victory over the Redskins.

“I am super proud of the girls,” Big Red head coach Angie Forte said. “We ask them for 32 minutes of basketball and that’s what they gave us. The girls came out, got an early lead and were able to sustain that momentum throughout the whole game. A lot of kids did a lot of good things for us. Everyone made the most of their minutes.

“I’m extremely proud of the collective effort. The coaching staff put a great game plan together, did great scouting and film work. The girls worked hard in practice to be prepared. From top to bottom, this is a great program win.”

Big Red’s Terionah Thompson shoots over Indian Creek’s Riley Sadler. - Andrew Grimm

Big Red, which is now 15-1 and leading the OVAC Class 5A and OHSAA Division III East District standings, opened a 26-6 lead after the opening quarter and did not look back.

“It’s nice when shots are falling early, the big thing was being able to sustain it,” Forte said. “Sometimes we get complacent, I tell the girls all the time never to be satisfied. They were not content and continued to push.

“Indian Creek is a good team, they are well-coached. Coach Eft does a phenomenal job. To be able to come out and play as well as we did and get this win, I’m super proud of the girls.”

For Creek, which dropped to 13-4, it was a third-straight loss. Those losses, however, are to teams with a combined 42-7 record as they also fell to Union Local (16-1) in the Buckeye 8 title game on Saturday and Carrollton (11-5), who leads the Division IV, East District rankings.

“They’re a really good team, and when you don’t come out and execute, things can snowball on you real fast against a team like that,” Indian Creek head coach Steve Eft said. “They made us pay for every mistake. It snowballed on us. We’re getting to that time of the year where there’s a lot of big games ahead and we have to learn from this. We’ve faced three really tough teams in a row and it’s that time of year where you have to get better or this is what’s gonna happen.

Big Red’s Brynn Bowers looks to pass in front of Indian Creek’s Gabby Taylor. - Andrew Grimm

“We’re going to regroup and get back after it. We still have OVACs coming up, we still have sectionals ahead, so we have to get better. This one hurts, but hopefully its going to make us better for the tournament and we learn the lessons we need to learn from it.”

Nylah McShan, the second leading scoring in OVAC Class 5A this season, had another big night for Big Red with a game-high 22 points. Lucy Saccoccia and Phynyx Fleming each netted 11 to put three in double figures. Bailee Beall hit two 3s to net eight and Brynn Bowers tallied seven.

Big Red led 42-16 at halftime and extended the lead even further in the third to 59-23. In the fourth, it surpassed the threshold for the running clock rule.

Creek was led by 11 points from Gracie Klinesmith and 10 from Kaydence Walker.

UP NEXT

Big Red: Is back at home Thursday night to host Weir High.

Indian Creek: Has another tough match up with perennial OVAC power Bellaire on Thursday at home.

Big Red 69, Indian Creek 31

BR 26-16-17-11 — 69

IC 6-10-7-8 — 31

BIG RED (15-1): Bowers 3 0-0 7; Saccoccia 5 0-0 11; Fleming 4 0-0 11; McShan 10 2-3 22; Beall 3 0-0 8; Lewis 0 0-0 0; Thompson 3 0-0 6; Younce 0 0-0 0; Scurry 2 0-0 4; Green 0 0-0 0; Luther 0 0-0 0; Montgomery 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 30, 2-3; 69.

INDIAN CREEK (13-4): Walker 4 2-2 10; Taylor 0 0-0 0; Sadler 0 0-0 0; Klinesmith 4 1-2 11; Brandon 1 1-1 3; Wiley 3 1-2 7; Cozart 0 0-0 0; Leach 0 0-0 0; Crouch 0 0-0 0; 12, 5-7; 31.

3-POINTERS: Big Red 7 (Fleming 3, Beall 2, Bowers, Saccoccia); Indian Creek 2 (Klinesmith 2).