GOING UP — Big Red’s JoJo Rea shoots over Central’s Rahim Mitchell during Tuesday’s game inside the Crimson Center. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — While they might not often show up on the score sheet, the bench players on a basketball team work hard in practice the same as the starters.

The Big Red boys basketball team got to reward the hard work of its bench players with some playing time on Tuesday night.

Steubenville’s starters got off to a flying start against an overmatched Catholic Central inside the Crimson Center and built a big lead, allowing all 11 players dressed to see the floor in the second half of a 90-22 victory over the Crusaders.

“It’s good when we can do that,” Big Red head coach Mike Haney said. “Everybody got to play, everyone got good minutes. The guys off the bench did a great job. They’re here every day working hard so it’s good for them to get in there and show what they can do.”

Nine different players scored for Big Red (8-1), and five reached double digits. Santino Haney led the way with a game-high 23 points, while Braidyn Edwards came off the bench and finished with 17, swishing three triples and grabbing six rebounds. Tre Wiggins netted 13 and five boards, Jermaine Moore tallied 12 points and Landon Bowers 10 points, each with four rebounds.

Big Red, ranked No. 8 in Division III by MaxPreps, netted 32 points in the opening quarter to open a 24-point lead. The lead was 39 by the halftime break at 56-15. A 22-0 showing in the third quarter spread the margin wider.

For Central (5-6), who competes in Division VII, it was the toughest match up on their schedule.

“They’re a very talented team, a very experienced team and they played very well, hats off to them,” Central head coach Don Ogden said of Big Red. “They play together, they know where each other are on the court and it showed.

“I’m proud of my kids, coming in we knew it was a tall hill to climb, a mountain really, but the biggest thing for us is this game is over with now and we can refocus and get ready to start playing our schedule. We feel like we can compete with the rest of the teams on our schedule. It’s safe to say we’re not going to play another team of that caliber the rest of the year, so we can’t get down on ourselves, we just have to move on and compete starting Friday.”

Rahim Mitchell led the Crusaders with nine points and six rebounds. Michael Fabbro tallied six.

UP NEXT

Catholic Central: Is back in action Friday hosting an opponent in its own division, Bridgeport.

Big Red: Has a big test on the road on Friday night at 6-3 Indian Valley.

Big Red 90, Catholic Central 22

CC 8-7-0-7 — 22

BR 32-24-22-12 — 90

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (5-6): Fabbro 3 0-0 6; Mitchell 4 0-0 9; Cherepko 0 0-0 0; E. Krivoniak 1 0-0 2; Hough 1 1-4 3; Bryan 1 0-0 2; D. Krivoniak 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10, 1-4; 22.

BIG RED (8-1): Wiggins 4 4-6 16; Haney 11 0-0 23; Moore 5 1-1 12; C. Bowers 3 0-0 7; L. Bowers 5 0-0 10; Edwards Edwards 6 2-2 17; Adams 1 0-0 2; Luke 2 0-0 4; Burkhart 0 0-0 0; Rea 1 0-0 2; Kokiko 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 38, 7-9; 90.

3-POINTERS: Catholic Central 1 (Mitchell); Big Red 7 (Edwards 3, Wiggins, Haney, Moore, C. Bowers). REBOUNDS: Catholic Central 15 (Mitchell 6); Big Red 35 (Rea 8).