SHOOTING — Big Red’s Bailee Beall attempts a long shot during Monday’s game at Bellaire. -- Nick Henthorn

BELLAIRE – Big Red traveled to face the Big Reds on Monday, Steubenville opening their season against Bellaire, who entered the contest after winning their own season opener against Shadyside.

Behind a hefty second half differential, including a 14-2 edge in the fourth quarter, Steubenville started their 2023-24 campaign on a high note, leaving town with a 49-31 victory over Bellaire.

“All of that hard work, sweat and pain that you’re going through when you’re running those sprints, those are the things that pay off and feel good when you’re able to outlast a team, condition-wise, in the fourth quarter,” Steubenville head coach Angi Forte said.

“I think that’s what we did, I think it came down to conditioning, and our girls really dug in, started playing better defensively, started rebounding the ball, and started getting after it.”

Steubenville led by four after the first quarter, and led by three, 26-23, at halftime.

Bellaire’s offense hit some snags in the second half, scoring six points in the third and just two in the fourth against an aggressive Big Red defense, who scarcely allowed the Big Reds to grab a defensive rebound without immediately hounding them in the backcourt.

“This is a good challenge for us, this was a team that brought back all their starters from last year,” Bellaire head coach John Farrier said. “This was a good test for us, they’re a seasoned group and they play very physical. I thought we played pretty well for the first three quarters, then I don’t know if we wore down, but things kind of started to snowball on us and they opened it up a little there.”

Constant pressure against Bellaire led to 10 fourth-quarter turnovers by the Big Reds, and some easy run-out lay-ins by Steubenville.

The approach was effective for Big Red on Monday, but Forte is taking a wait-and-see approach to adopting that style 24/7.

“We have to be careful because we do have low numbers, and you can’t get in foul trouble,” Forte said of her defense. “We’ll just have to see as we go down the line, working on the conditioning portion of it to be able to do that and not foul in the backcourt because we’re tired. We’re going to play aggressive at times, and we’ll just see as the season progresses how much of that we want to do.”

Rhyan O’Grady tied the game up for Bellaire late in the second quarter, 21-21, after intercepting a pass to the top of the key and speeding down the other end and finishing an and-one layup. The play was the last tie of the game for the Big Reds, as Steubenville’s Bailee Beall nailed a 3-pointer on the next possession to give Big Red a lead for good.

“I’ve been telling the girls that if we’re going to win games against good teams, we’ve got to cut the turnovers down,” Farrier said. “I think we had like 25 turnovers today, that’s just too much, especially against a good team, you’re not going to win those games like that. I think we’ll be better because of games like this, because [Big Red] plays so hard, plays so physical, it gets us in that frame of mind to be able to handle that pressure.”

Steubenville nailed seven 3-pointers Monday, five of them coming from Madalyn Criss, who knocked down five long balls for 15 points, a game-high.

“She’s in the gym, she gets up a lot of shots in the offseason, during the season, she’s in the gym getting up shots,” Forte said. “It pays off when it comes to gametime. Her teammates have confidence, they’re going to find her and she came through and knocked them down.”

“Because of our conditioning, we still had the legs to be able to shoot at the end. We have a couple of really nice shooters who were able to knock down some shots and extend the lead.”

O’Grady led Bellaire with nine, while Zara Harveth and Eliana Mason each added six.

For Big Red, Criss’ 15 was followed by Nylah McShan with 12 and Aniyah Warner with 10.

Bellaire next faces St. Clairsville on Dec. 4. Steubenville next faces Indian Creek on Nov. 30.

STEUBENVILLE (49) – Warner 5 0-2 10; Scurry 0 0-0 0; Criss 5 0-0 15; Jones 2 0-1 4; Cooper 0 0-0 0; Matteson 1 0-0 3; McShan 5 2-3 12; Beall 2 0-0 5; Totals 20 2-5 49 BELLAIRE (31) – Ault 1 0-0 2; Kendle 0 0-0 0; Edgar 1 0-0 2; Harveth 3 0-0 6; Mason 3 0-0 6; Morgan 1 0-0 2; O’Grady 3 2-7 9; Mayer 0 0-0 0; Rowson 1 0-0 2; Hines 0 0-0 0; Kanyuch 0 0-0 0; Totals 13 4-9 31.

Three-Point Goals: Steubenville 7 (Criss 5, Matteson, Beall). Bellaire 1 (O’Grady).