CONTESTED SHOT — Big Red’s Santino Haney takes a contested jumper against Marietta on Friday night inside the Crimson Center. Haney had a double-double in a 57-29 Steubenville victory. - Andrew Grimm

While the outside shooting that usually lights it up for Steubenville was not there on Friday against previously unbeaten Marietta, a smothering defense was.

Despite the rare off night shooting, Big Red used that defensive effort to wear down the Tigers and pull away for a 57-29 victory inside the Crimson Center.

Steubenville held the visitors to just 11 points in the second half and in single digits in three of four quarters, forcing 16 turnovers.

“Defense, we talked about defense the whole time,” Big Red head coach Mike Haney said. “Marietta is a really good team, their coach does a great job with them. They play great defense and made it hard to get to the bucket. Once we did shoot, we weren’t making many and we weren’t getting offensive rebounds, but we just kept fighting and fighting and getting after it on the defensive end. We battled for a full 32 minutes.

Big Red’s Landon Bowers takes a contested shot against Marietta on Friday. - Andrew Grimm

“It’s good to show we can win that way with defense, you never know how it might go shooting, so it’s good to be able to count on defense when you have an off night shooting. Defensively you can be there every night with effort.”

While maybe the shooting was not as hot as its been, especially from the outside where Big Red connected for just two 3s, they still managed to get four players in double digits and got offensive contributions from six different players.

Freshman Landon Bowers led the way with a game-high 15 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Junior standout and two-time All-Ohioan Santino Haney finished with a double-double, netting 12 points and dishing 10 assists to go with five boards and three steals. Tre Wiggins knocked down one of the 3s for Big Red on his way to 14 points, while Cole Bowers netted 12 points, three rebounds and three steals.

“It was a total team effort, the guys did a good job sharing the ball,” coach Haney said. “We had a lot of assists tonight, we did a better job in the second half of hitting guys cutting to the hoop and getting easy layups.”

Big Red (3-0) held a 10-8 lead after a very slow-paced first quarter, then started to pull away in the second. Steubenville netted its highest output in the second quarter, 18 points, a 9-0 run sparked by an and-one from Wiggins pushing the lead to as many as 12 before it sat at 10 (28-18) at the break.

Big Red’s Tre Wiggins releases a jumper. - Andrew Grimm

Big Red continued to grind the lead further and further out as a Haney and-one in the third quarter pushed the lead to 19 after three, then in the fourth, it swelled to as many as 29 on the way to the 28-point victory.

Marietta (3-1) did not have a player reach double digits as the Tigers were led by nine points from Lason Gasklos and six points and seven boards from Trey Hawkins.

Big Red was on at the foul line, going 11 of 13, while the Tigers struggled to a 6 for 17 showing. Despite the struggles on the offensive glass, Steubenville still finsihed with a 31-28 advantage on the boards.

UP NEXT

Marietta: Returned home to host Ross County Christian on Saturday before hosting another OVAC foe in Wheeling Central next Friday.

Steubenville: Is off until next Saturday when it hosts Linden-McKinley in the annual Watt/Nese Classic. The opening tip is set for 4:15 p.m.

Steubenville 57, Marietta 29

M 8-10-6-5 — 29

S 10-18-15-14 — 57

MARIETTA (3-1): Miller 0 0-0 0; Hawkins 2 1-8 6; Gosklos 3 1-2 9; Riley 2 2-3 6; Wittekind 1 1-2 4; Plaugher 1 0-0 3; Moat 0 0-0 0; McVey 0 1-2 1; Kroft 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9, 6-17; 29.

STEUBENVILLE (3-0): Wiggins 5 3-3 14; Haney 3 6-8 12; Moore 0 0-0 0; C. Bowers 6 0-0 12; L. Bowers 5 2-2 15; Adams 1 0-0 2; Rea 1 0-0 2; Edwards 0 0-0 0; Anderson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21, 11-13; 57.

3-POINTERS: Marietta 5 (Gosklos 2, Hawkins, Wittekind, Plaugher); Steubenville 2 (Wiggins, L. Bowers). ASSISTS: Marietta 7 (Hawkins 3); Steubenville 15 (Haney 10). REBOUNDS: Marietta 28 (Hawkins 7); Steubenville 31 (L.Bowers 8). STEALS: Marietta 6 (Hawkins 3); Steubenville 12 (Haney 3, C. Bowers 3, L. Bowers 3). BLOCKS: Marietta 1 (Riley); Steubenville 3 (L. Bowers 2). TURNOVERS: Marietta 16; Steubenville 9.