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Turnovers hurt Catholic Central boys in home loss to St. Clairsville, 74-48

FROM DEEP — Catholic Central’s Ryan Gorman attempts a 3-point shot against St. Clairsville on Saturday. (Photo by Joe Catullo)

STEUBENVILLE — St. Clairsville controlled the pace and the game against Catholic Central on Saturday.

The Red Devils jumped out to an early lead, and they never looked, en route to a 74-48 victory against the Crusaders on the road inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

“That has been us all year,” first-year St. Clairsville (11-4) head coach Ryan Clifford said. “We play fast. We want to push the ball. We want to run out and get into transition. That is the way we have played this season, and that is the way we are going to continue to play. It is who we are. We pressed more than we usually do. We shared the ball well. It has been a different guy every night. I am happy with how we played. I am happy we were able to come up here and get a win.”

St. Clairsville scored the first four points of the game, and the visitors built a double-digit lead in the first quarter. After falling behind 17-5, the hosts did not get closer than eight points the rest of the way.

“We struggled with ball security,” first-year Catholic Central (3-12) head coach Mike Holmes said. “That has been a priority for us. We focus on it at practice. All of our drills are focused on it. It is a priority. It is a point of emphasis as we prepare for every game. Last night, we showed what we can do when we take care of the basketball. We only had 10 turnovers against Bellaire.

“St. Clairsville is a talented team. They are long and quick. We tried to fake a pass and then pass it right past their ear, but they were able to react and make deflections. We had not seen that type of length in a while. We turned the ball over too many times. You can’t defend runouts. You can defend off of missed shots because you are able to get back on defense. I thought we did a really-good job defensively in the half-court, but they were able to get a lot of runouts. When you turn the ball over, those are possessions that you don’t get. We are not prolific enough offensively, so we can’t afford to lose possessions.”

Three players scored in double digits to lead the way for St. Clairsville. Matt Busby tallied a team-high 20 points, Craig Bober recorded 17 and Justin Heatherington netted 13.

Two players reached double figures for Catholic Central. Luca Connor recorded a team-high 20 points, while Vince Carapellotti collected 12.

The Red Devils were able to score in transition and in the paint, but St. Clairsville had an off-night shooting-wise from the outside. St. Clairsville did not make a 3-pointer in the first half.

“We did not shoot well from the perimeter,” Clifford said. “We did not make a 3 in the first half. It has been a long time since that happened. For whatever reason, teams shoot better at home. That has always been a part of our game, but the kids did a good job of recognizing that the shots were not dropping, so they threw the basketball into the post. It was nice to see that we just did not continue to fire and fire from the outside.

“We had a bad taste in our mouths from Tuesday night. We wanted to come in here and right the ship, and we were able to do that.”

The Red Devils led 21-9 at the end of the first, and the victors extended their advantage to 39-24 at halftime.

“I thought we did a better job of ball security in the second half,” Holmes said. “We did a better job offensively. This was a good overall game for us. We came into the game off of a win last night, and playing like we did tonight will help us. We are a young team. This was a good learning experience for us. I don’t think I am going to lose a ton of sleep tonight — anymore than I usually do. With these guys, we are real close to getting to where we want to be. St. Clairsville is a high-caliber team.”

St. Clairsville led 58-36 entering the fourth.

“In the half-court, I thought we did as good of a job as we possibly could do,” Holmes said. “They were able to get out in transition thanks to their press.”

The Red Devils led by as many as 28 points.

“I think this is the first time we have ever played here,” Clifford said. “We played them last year. They had a lot different personnel. They had two-really good players last year.

“One thing I was worried about was them holding the ball. Tuesday’s game was played at a frenzied pace. They wanted to hold the ball a little bit. We wanted to be able to dictate the tempo to them and not have them dictate the tempo to us. We scored 21 in the first. That is what we want to be. That is the pace we like to play at. We are good when we get the ball up and down the court.”

Both teams are scheduled to play Tuesday. Catholic Central is slated to play Bridgeport on the road, while St. Clairsville will play River at home before playing Martins Ferry Wednesday on the road in a battle to claim the winner of the Buckeye 8 South Division.

“It is a big game,” Clifford said. “Our motto is every game is a big game.”

GAME NOTES

¯ St. Clairsville won the JV game, 60-25. Drew Sefsick scored a team-high 13 points to lead the way for the Red Devils. Toby Lefnesky tallied a game-high 15 points to lead the Crusaders.

St. Clairsville 74, Catholic Central 48

St. Clairsville 21-18-19-16 — 74

Catholic Central 9-15-12-12 — 48

ST. CLAIRSVILLE (11-4): Busby 8 4-4 20; Bober 6 5-6 17; Lane 3 0-0 8; Norman 0 0-0 0; Vike 2 0-0 5; Wolfe 0 0-0 0; Balgo 2 0-0 6; Sefisck 0 0-0 0; Crist 0 0-0 0; Heatherington 5 3-4 13; Harris 2 0-0 5 . TOTALS: 28, 12-15: 74.

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (3-12): Connor 6 6-6 20; J. Rook 1 2-2 4; Gorman 2 0-0 5; Carapellotti 6 0-2 12; Argentine 1 1-2 4; M. Rook 1 0-0 3; Hough 0 0-0 0; Rohde 0 0-0 0; Lefnesky 0 0-0 0; Asci 0 0-0 0; Anderson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17, 9-12: 48.

3-POINT GOALS: St. Clairsville 6 (Lane 2, Balgo 2, Vike, Harris); Catholic Central 5 (Connor 2, Gorman, Arentine, M. Rook).

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