Big Red’s JoJo Rea puts up a shot against St. Clairsville. - Andrew Grimm

He got it.

Steubenville scored the first 10 points of the game, rattled off a big run to close the second quarter and pushed the lead further and further in the second half on the way to an 81-47 victory over visiting St. Clairsville.

“It was a great way to end the regular season,” Haney said. “We don’t get a home game in the tournament so this was the last game here for the seniors, you always want to win the last game here for them. It was a good performance against a really good team.”

Big Red finishes the regular season a sparkling 21-1 as it now shifts its focus to the tournament. They went a perfect 12-0 inside the Crimson Center this season. The only loss was to undefeated defending West Virginia state champ Wheeling Central on a neutral floor in the Kalivoda Showcase in December.

Santino Haney lays in a layup on his way to 23 points. - Andrew Grimm

The Red Devils trimmed the early margin to four late in the first quarter and were within 19-13 after one. An 11-0 Big Red run to close the first half, though, put St. Clairsville (15-7) into a 19-point hole at the break and it only grew from there, going to 24 after three and as many as 35 in the fourth.

“They’re pretty good and we had gotten them a couple times in a row so they had a little bit of a chip on their shoulder coming in,” St. C head coach Ryan Clifford said. “Give them credit, they play really hard. They shot lights out from the floor.

“I told the team, when you’re off at college and playing poker, you have to know when to fold them and about the middle of that third quarter, it was time to fold them. We have bigger fish to fry coming up. We hope to be playing for a long time, we’re going to wash this one off and be ready for the tournament.”

While Big Red shot 48 percent overall and drained 10 3-pointers, finishing with four players in double figures, the defense was also on point, forcing St. C into 16 turnovers while out-rebounding the Red Devils 36-23.

“Defense and sharing the ball, those are the two most important things in our book and we did both of those things well tonight,” coach Haney said.

LETTING IT GO — Big Red’s Jermaine Moore lets a shot go over St. Clairsville’s Kaden Clifford during Tuesday’s game inside the Crimson Center. - Andrew Grimm

Junior standout Santino Haney led the way for Steubenville with 23 points and eight rebounds, while senior Jermaine Moore knocked down three triples — two early in the game to kick-start the first-quarter run — on his way to 11 points, fellow senior Cole Bowers hit two 3s on his way to netting 14 points and five rebounds and senior Tre Wiggins tallied 10 points, also hitting twice from beyond the arc.

“Santino gets a lot of credit, and he should, he’s a great player, but the other guys hurt us tonight,” Clifford said. “They had multiple guys making shots and made it hard on us to keep up.”

St. Clairsville was led by Girffin Straub with 14 points and eight boards.

UP NEXT

It is tournament time for both teams.

St. Clairsville is the top seed in the Division V, East 2 bracket and hosts No. 15 seed and Belmont county rival Bellaire on Saturday night at home.

Big Red is the top seed in the east side of the Division III East/Southeast District bracket and takes on No. 3 seed Dover on Saturday night at the ECO Center.

“We told them it was a great regular season, but that’s over and there’s no mulligans now,” coach Haney said. “One slip up and you’re done now, so we have to be ready to go. The games get even bigger now. We’ll get to work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and be ready to get them on Saturday.”

Big Red 81, St. Clairsville 47

SC 13-13-13-8 — 47

BR 19-26-18-18 — 81

ST. CLAIRSVILLE (15-7): Jacob 3-4 1-2 7; Shafer 1-3 0-2 2; K. Clifford 1-2 0-0 3; Mohly 0-2 0-0 0; Straub 5-12 3-3 14; McClean 0-0 0-0 0; Crosby 0-0 0-0 0; B. Clifford 4-9 1-4 12; King 1-4 0-0 3; Crum 1-2 0-0 3; Anderson 0-0 0-0 0; Kosek 0-0 0-0 0; Pastor 1-1 1-2 3. TOTALS: 17-42, 6-13; 47.

BIG RED (21-1): Wiggins 4-12 0-0 10; Haney 9-19 4-5 23; Moore 4-9 0-0 11; C. Bowers 6-11 0-0 14; L. Bowers 3-7 0-0 6; Edwards 3-4 1-2 8; Adams 1-1 0-0 3; Luke 0-1 0-0 2; Burkhart 1-2 0-0 2; Rea 2-2 0-0 4; Kokiko 0-1 0-0 0; Nocera 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 33-69, 6-7; 81.

3-POINTERS: St. Clairsville 7-22 (B. Clifford 3, K. Clifford, King, Crum, Straub); Big Red 10-28 (Moore 3, Wiggins 2, C. Bowers, Haney, Edwards, Adams). REBOUNDS: St. Clairsville 23 (Straub 7); Big Red 36 (L. Bowers 8, Haney 8). TURNOVERS: St. Clairsville 16; Big Red 3.