STEUBENVILLE — The final score is deceiving.

The Catholic Central girls basketball team outscored Brooke by 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 68-37 victory on Senior Night Monday night inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

The Crusaders led the Bruins by four points at the end of the first, 10 at halftime and by 14 entering the fourth.

“The final score does not tell how the game went,” Catholic Central (11-6) head coach Rocky Bragg said. “It was a tight game. I have to give Amy and her team a ton of credit. They came out and played hard. They wanted to win. They were strong on the boards. They found open girls on runouts. They gave us fits.

“In the fourth quarter, we recovered from our sluggish start. We got off to a slow start. We could not find our rhythm. We weren’t playing with intensity. We were kind of just going through the motions. I thought I was going to lose my cool a couple of times, but I was able to stay calm. I told the girls we had to play with focus and more intensity.

“As the game went on, we had the opportunity to get some baskets, and we were able to start to control the pace. Our press started to work early in the fourth quarter. That woke us up a little bit.”

The girls in white led 47-33 entering the fourth before outscoring the girls in green, 21-4, in the final stanza to account for the final margin of victory.

“We played a good first half,” Brooke (2-13) head coach Amy Serevicz said. “If we did not half to go into halftime and we were able to keep playing, things could have been different. We have played some really good first halves this year, and then we come out in the second half and we look like a different team.

“Our rebounding hurt us. Statistically, we have outrebounded every team so far, but our rebounding hurt us tonight. We are a work in progress. When they score 21, and we only score four, you’re not going to win.”

Mara Delaney delivered a game-high 24 points to lead the way offensively for Catholic Central, Shya Garcia recorded 15 and Aurie Hoover and Mary Rohde each tallied eight points. Rohde pulled down a team-high 14 rebounds to go along with six assists, Hoover delivered 11 rebounds and eight assists and Delaney contributed six rebounds and four assists.

Rylin Bowman ended up with a team-high 14 points to lead Brooke, Marionna Dipaolo produced 11 and Keira Kosut collected six.

The visitors from Brooke County grabbed 25 rebounds in the game.

The win enabled the hosts to sweep the season series from the visitors as the Crusaders defeated the Bruins, 67-27, last Monday night inside the Brooke Wellness Center.

“We did everything the same,” Bragg said. “You could tell they put in a lot of work on their press break, and it worked right out of the gate. We had to make some adjustments. They played with speed. They were able to break our press. They played fast.”

The girls from Brooke County were able to beat Catholic Central’s press at times, while not being able to break at other times.

“We were able to handle their press at times,” Serevicz said. “At other times, we reverted back to throwing the ball like it was a grenade.”

The Blue-and-Gold led 16-12 at the end of the first, and the girls from Jefferson County extended their advantage out to 34-24 at halftime. The victors increased their advantage to 47-33 entering the fourth.

Catholic Central has now won six straight games.

“We have moved up to third in the OVACs,” Bragg said. “We were in fifth, but we have moved up to third. We’re getting a lot of points with these wins. We have won six games in a row. The girls are staying focused. We are playing good basketball. The girls are focused on the game at hand. Once the game is over, they start to prepare for the next one. We want to finish strong. We are going to need to do that to have success in the OVAC Tournament and in the state tournament.”

Prior to the start of the game, Catholic Central honored its four seniors – Mary Fink, Kenadie Balabin, Gemma Rigaud and Rohde.

“It means a lot,” Bragg said about being able to win the game on Senior Night. “We were able to start all four seniors. We wanted to thank them for their four years of service to the program. They are wonderful young ladies. They are going to have a lot of success in life. I am so proud of each one of them. They earned their start tonight.”

Bragg is in his third season as head coach of the Crusaders.

“They have been wonderful,” Bragg said about the seniors. “They bring the best out of the other kids. They are fun to be around. They keep practice running smoothly. They have the respect of the other girls. They are why this program is where it is at. They set the tone, and the other girls fall right into place.”

Catholic Central is scheduled to play Shadyside Thursday night on the road. The two-quarter JV game is set to start at 6 p.m. The Tigers defeated the Crusaders, 51-43, Dec. 18 on the road.

“It is a big game,” Bragg said. “They put it to us here. They out-physicaled us. We have to be prepared to handle their press. We had a tough time finishing in the game here, so that is going to be out focus the next couple of days.”

Brooke is slated to play St. Clairsville in a varsity-only game at 6 p.m. Thursday on the road down on John Jenkins Court. The Red Devils defeated the Bruins, 44-38, Friday night on the road.

“We can’t get our shots to fall,” Serevicz said. “Our shooting percentage is lower than what it should be. We take good shots, we take accurate shots, but they go in and out, in and out. We need to get the ball to go into the basket.”

Catholic Central 68, Brooke 37

Brooke 12 12 9 4 – 37

Catholic Central 16 18 13 21 – 68

BROOKE (2-13): M. Bowman 2 0-2 4, Kaufman 0 0-0 0, Kosut 3 0-0 6, Provenzano 0 0-0 0, McLaughlin 1 0-0 2, Bober 0 0-0 0, Corso 0 0-0 0, R. Bowman 7 0-1 14, Costlow 0 0-0 0, Bolen 0 0-0 0, Dipaolo 4 3-5 11. TOTALS: 17 3-8 37.

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (11-6): Lathem 0 0-0 0, Hoover 2 3-5 8, Fink 1 0-0 2, Bressler 1 0-0 2, L. Krivoniak 1 0-0 3, Delaney 11 1-1 24, Wise 0 0-0 0, Balabin 0 0-0 0, Bolster 0 2-2 2, Rohde 2 4-8 8, Krupp 1 0-0 2, Garcia 6 1-2 15, Brem 0 0-0 0, Rigaud 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 26 11-16 68.

3-POINTERS: Brooke (None); Catholic Central (Garcia 2, Hoover, Krivoniak, Delaney)