CONTESTED SHOT — Big Red’s Landon Bowers puts up a shot in the paint against defense from Edison’s Timothy DeGarmo and Jackson McBane on Tuesday night. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — There is nothing an opponent can do when a team shoots as well as the Big Red boys’ basketball did in the first quarter.

Big Red drained eight 3-pointers in the first quarter against Jefferson County rival Edison and did not look back en route to an 87-36 victory via mercy rule Tuesday night inside the Crimson Center.

“We shot the ball well,” Big Red (19-1) head coach Mike Haney said. “We started fast. We had good looks. We were able to penetrate and kick the ball out. Those are the 3s we want to take. When that happens, we seem to make more than we miss.”

Big Red recorded 11 3s in the first half.

“There’s much you can do at all,” Edison (8-11) head coach Nate Moses said. “First and foremost, that is a really-good basketball team down there. When I first got the job back again, my first call was to Coach Haney. That is the type of team you want to have on your schedule. You don’t want to be afraid to play them. You want to try and compete with them. We have competed with them in the past. We want to get back to playing this kind of an opponent. They are really good. Playing teams like this will be good for us in the long run. They are a really-good basketball team.”

The boys in white built a 37-13 advantage at the end of the first quarter, and the hosts extended their advantage out to 62-21 at halftime.

“That’s what we want to do. We want to get out and press, and we want to speed teams up,” Haney said. “We want to create turnovers and get layups on the other end.”

The victors increased their advantage out to 82-32 entering the fourth.

“We are going to look at the film and see what we could have done better,” Moses said. “We are gearing up for the second part of our season. I told the guys before the game that we are gearing up for sectionals. I told them we are not going to play a team like this in our sectional. We are going to use this as a learning experience. We have to think that way. We are never going to duck a team. We just have to get back to the point where we are able to compete with teams like that.”

Big Red outscored the Wildcats, 5-4, in the fourth.

Four players produced double digits in points to lead the way offensively for Big Red.

Standout junior Santino Haney netted a game-high 21 points to lead the way for the home team. Haney also had four steals and four rebounds in the win.

Also for Big Red, Jermaine Moore contributed 19 points, Landon Bowers tallied 11 and Tre’von Wiggins ended up with 10.

For Edison, Timmy DeGarmo tallied a team-high 14 points, while Jaxon Wiley collected seven.

“Coach Moses does a good job with those boys,” Coach Haney said. “They came out in a zone. Other teams have ran zone against us, but we did not make as many shots as we did tonight.”

Big Red outrebounded Edison, 36-16.

Big Red scored the first 11 points of the game before Bryce Rogers scored to put the Silver-and-Black on the scoreboard with 5:22 remaining in the first quarter.

The second half was played with a running clock.

Big Red has now won 14-straight games.

“We want to keep getting better every day,” Coach Haney said. “We want keep working hard at practice. We have two games left before the tournament starts. We don’t want to take a step down. We want to keep going up.”

Big Red finished the game with 13 3s, while Edison ended the night with six.

Edison is scheduled to play Brooke Thursday on the road inside the Brooke Wellness Center. The Bruins defeated the Wildcats, 72-67, in the first meeting between the two teams Jan. 28 out at Edison.

Big Red is scheduled to play Carrollton Friday night at home.

“We just want to keep it rolling,” Coach Haney said.

Big Red 87, Edison 36

Edison 13 8 11 4 – 36

Big Red 37 25 20 5 – 87

EDISON (8-11): DeGarmo 5 0-0 14, D. Long 0 1-2 1, Rogers 2 0-0 5, Bokunevitz 0 0-0 0, Fuller 0 0-0 0, Haught 0 0-0 0, Farnsworth 0 1-4 1, K. Long 1 0-0 2, Everhart 0 0-0 0, Filburn 1 0-0- 2, Wiley 3 0-0 7, McBane 2 0-0 4 TOTALS: 14 6-10 36.

BIG RED (19-1): Wiggins 4 0-0 10, Haney 9 2-3 21, Moore 7 0-0 19, Edwards 1 0-0 3, L. Bowers 4 12- 11, Adams 1 0-0 3, Luke 3 0-0 7, Burkhart 0 0-0 0, Rea 3 1-2 7, Kokiko 0 0-0 0, Nocera 3 0-0 6. TOTALS: 35 4-7 87.

3-POINTERS: Edison 6 (DeGarmo 4, Rogers, Wiley); Big Red 13 (Moore 5, Wiggins 2, L. Bowers 2, Haney, Edwards, Adams, Luke)