SHOOTING — Catholic Central’s Shya Garcia attempts a shot past Oak Glen’s Mikalyn Balch during Thursday’s game at the Mickey Barber Gymnasium. - Andrew Grimm

The impassioned message got through to the Crusaders, who came out of the timeout with a 10-0 run to retake control and never trailed again on the way to a 54-46 victory over the Golden Bears Thursday night inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

“That was probably the most heated they had seen me this season,” Bragg said. “We had talked over and over about keeping our composure and we had kind of lost it there, we had four-straight turnovers that led to buckets the other way and we were losing control of the game … I called that timeout and got their attention.

“The message was to regain focus and they did that. These girls are resilient. I’m really proud of them. This is a good win for the program.”

It was a much different game than the first meeting between the teams up in New Manchester back in December, a 72-47 Oak Glen win. In particular, Central used a different defensive approach and it paid off.

Central’s Mara Delaney lets a shot go. - Andrew Grimm

“We had to change things up a little bit, the last time we played zone and tried to spread things out and they hung 72 points on the board,” Bragg said. “This time we wanted to put pressure on them, we went man the whole game. We wanted to make sure they didn’t have time and space to get those shots off. When they came off some picks and had some space, they made shots, they made them count, they’re a good shooting team. Our job was to turn up the intensity, match their intensity and continue to work hard and get second chance opportunities.”

For Oak Glen head coach Ryan Wells, a close, back-and-forth battle was what he expected despite the way the first game went.

“The first time we played them was a bit of a fluke, we couldn’t miss and they couldn’t hit anything … tonight was the normal Oak Glen-Steubenville Central game, a battle back and forth,” Wells said. “Really it boiled down to making plays at the end of the game, they made shots and we didn’t. We took good shots, they just weren’t falling. The girls played hard, it was a great game.

“Both sides had their runs, they just had the last one. We talked in the locker room about the small things, it wasn’t a lack of effort. These teams are just so well matched, it’s always so fun to play them.

“We’ve split several years in a row, me and Rocky talked about that. We love playing them because we know we’re going to have good games.

Oak Glen’s Mikalyn Balch attempts a shot in transition past Catholic Central’s Aurelia Hoover.

“Credit to Central, their defensive effort was great and (Mara Delaney) stepped up and had a great game, she had a stretch there where she had eight-straight points.”

Mary Rohde had a big night to lead Central with a game-high 25 points and 13 rebounds. Delaney hit five triples and finished with 20 points, while Aurelia Hoover also pulled down 13 boards. Rohde and Hoover combined for more rebounds (26) than Oak Glen had as a team (17).

“Mary did such an outstanding job on the boards, I’m so proud of her, Auriela did a great job on the boards, too, Mara hit some big shots, really I’m just proud of everyone on the team,” Bragg said. “Everyone did something to help get this win.”

After the game was knotted up at 15-all after one, Central (7-6) netted the first seven points of the second quarter to take the lead. Oak Glen (5-3), though, had an answer as Mikalyn Balch and Kiera Vick hit 3s on back-to-back possessions to make it a one-point game again, and it stayed close the rest of the half, the Crusaders taking a 28-25 lead into the break.

Oak Glen used a 7-0 run early in the third to take the lead for the first time since the opening quarter, but Central answered right back as Delaney hit a pair of 3s, sparking a 9-0 Central run to close the third quarter on top 39-32.

Oak Glen’s Emma Everett puts up a shot past Central’s Mary Rohde. - Andrew Grimm

Oak Glen then had its big push, Ella Stewart giving the Bears the lead with one of her four 3s prompting Bragg’s key timeout, but from there the Crusaders responded and closed things out.

Oak Glen was led by 16 points from Balch and 14 from Stewart, each of whom knocked down four 3s. The Bears had more triples (nine) than short range makes (eight).

UP NEXT

Oak Glen: Has a tough test Monday on the road at Wheeling Central.

Catholic Central: Travels to Zanesville Rosecrans on Saturday afternoon.

Catholic Central 54, Oak Glen 46

OG 15-10-7-14 — 46

CC 15-13-11-15 — 54

OAK GLEN (5-3): Everett 4 1-2 9; Balch 6 0-0 16; Polly 0 0-0 0; H. Stewart 1 0-0 2; E. Stewart 5 0-0 14; Wells 0 0-2 0; Mascio 0 0-0 0; Vick 1 2-2 5. TOTALS: 17, 3-6; 46.

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (7-6): Hoover 1 1-2 3; Delaney 7 1-4 20; Rohde 11 1-1 25; Garcia 1 2-4 5; Rigaud 0 0-0 0; Lathem 0 0-0 0; Fink 0 1-2 1; Krivoniak 0 0-0 0; Bolster 1 0-0 2; Balabin 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21, 6-11; 54.

3-POINTERS: Oak Glen 9 (Balch 4, E. Stewart 4, Vick); Catholic Central 6 (Delaney 5, Garcia).