Big Red’s Lucy Saccoccia lets one of her three 3-pointers fly. - Andrew Grimm

Hosting a youthful Wheeling Park in the OVAC Class 5A semifinals, top-seeded Steubenville accomplished that goal. 

Big Red, last year’s OVAC runner up, raced out to a lead early and used a couple of key runs to pull away from the fourth-seeded Patriots for a 57-31 victory inside the Crimson Center, earning a spot in the conference championship for a second-straight year. 

“I’m proud of them,” Big Red head coach Angie Forte said. “You can never take anything for granted, regardless of what their record is Park is well-coached … our kids responded well and found our rhythm.

“They were hungry to get back there. We feel like we let an opportunity slip away last year … we wanted to get back there and have another shot at it.”

Big Red’s Phynyx Fleming works through the paint to the basket through contact from Wheeling Park’s Italy Schroeder. - Andrew Grimm

Steubenville (18-1) opened a 12-3 lead early and led 13-6 after one. The Patriots (2-14) pulled within 16-11 with a little more than five minutes left in the second, prompting Forte to call a timeout. Big Red then went on a 12-2 run, sparked by Phynyx Fleming knocking down a 3 and Nylah McShan following with a quick steal and a put back. 

After Steubenville led 30-15 at halftime, they raced out of the locker with the first seven points of the third quarter. After Park made a couple buckets the other way, Big Red rattled off another 7-0 run, capped by a Lucy Saccoccia triple to make it 46-20. The lead swelled to 50-22 after three and Big Red emptied the bench. 

“We came out of the locker room wanting to put it away and we talked about it at halftime, we told them we have to finish the game,” Forte said. “We knew Park was not going to quit and give up, so we talked about playing Big Red basketball and finishing.”

Park coach Ryan Young knew his team was in for a challenge, but hoped for a better showing. 

“They’re having a great year, they have two great seniors in McShan and (Bailee) Beall, they have experience and leadership and that really helps,” he said. “We don’t have that this year, but I was a little disappointed in our effort, especially on the glass. Phynyx is a big girl, we knew we were going to have a hard time with her on the glass but outside of her I felt like there wasn’t much difference in size, it just seemed like they wanted it a little more. It’s deflating when you work hard to get a stop, but you don’t rebound and they get second chance points. 

SHOOTING — Big Red’s Nylah McShan attempts a shot against close defense from Wheeling Park’s Klyn Neider and Layla Pettit during Monday’s OVAC Class 5A semifinal. - Andrew Grimm

“We came out and missed a lot of easy shots early and it kind of snowballed. We’re not a team that’s built to play from behind. We had a good stretch in the middle of the second quarter where we competed well, but outside of that they were just the better team. They have a really good chance of winning it all on Saturday.”

Karringtyn Miller had 12 points to lead Park. 

Big Red was led by a double-double from McShan as the Clarion University signee and reigning East District Player of the Year tallied 20 points and 12 rebounds. Fleming nearly made it two double-doubles, netting 11 points and nine boards. Saccoccia hit three 3s to finish with nine points. 

“Everyone had a chance to get on the floor and contribute,” Forte said. “The top six did a phenomenal job of getting the lead and the rest of them maintained it.” 

Big Red will take on No. 2 seed John Marshall — who came from behind to beat No. 3 seed University 45-35 in the other semifinal Monday — in Saturday’s championship game slated for 10 a.m. inside the ECO Center in St. Clairsville. Big Red defeated the Monarchs in a pair of regular season meetings this season.

With four players in the starting lineup that played in last year’s close championship game loss to Morgantown, they’re hungry to come back with the trophy this time around. 

“We talk about the banners hanging on the wall and the trophies we have sitting on the shelf,” Forte said. “We told them this was their opportunity to get back there and try to add to the trophy shelf. This time we want to come back with the hardware. 

“It’s huge that a lot of these girls experienced that atmosphere last year. We’re lucky that we have four starters that played a lot of minutes in that game a year ago, and we have a freshman (Brynn Bowers) who was at the game because her mother coaches. They’ve lived it, they’ve played at that intense level, I think they’re going to prepared for Saturday.

“We know the most important thing is how we play. It doesn’t matter what court it is or who the opponent is, we have to play 32 minutes of Big Red basketball.”

OVAC Girls Basketball Tournament

Class 5A Semifinal at the Crimson Center

No. 1 Steubenville 57, No. 4 Wheeling Park 31

WP 6-9-7-9 — 31

S 13-17-20-7 — 57

WHEELING PARK (2-14): Miller 5 0-0 12; Neider 0 0-0 0; Wells 1 3-4 5; Young 0 2-2 2; Schroeder 2 0-0 5; Pettit 1 1-2 3; Davis 0 0-0 0; Palmer 0 0-0 0; Moses 1 0-2 2; Harris 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11, 6-10; 31.

STEUBENVILLE (18-1): Bowers 2 0-0 4; Saccoccia 3 0-0 9; Fleming 5 0-2 11; Thompson 1 1-2 3; McShan 9 2-4 20; Beall 1 0-0 3; Lewis 0 0-0 0; Younce 1 0-0 2; Scurry 0 0-0 0; Green 1 0-0 3; Luther 0 0-0 0; Montgomery 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23, 3-8; 57.

3-POINTERS: Wheeling Park 3 (Miller 2, Schroeder); Steubenville 6 (Saccoccia 3, Fleming, Beall, Green)