×

Big Red ends regular season confident

Steubenville makes major improvements during 78-25 victory over Edison

Joe Catullo POSTERIZING — Steubenville’s Brenton Jones dunks over Edison’s Gage Cline during Wednesday’s contest.

STEUBENVILLE — Steubenville’s timing in facing Edison could not have come at a better time.

Big Red has struggled offensively for the past two or three weeks, and it cost them against New Philadelphia and South Range. So, finishing the regular season at home with the one-win Wildcats was a chance to get rolling again.

The final score really does not matter (Steubenville won 78-25). It was about getting better for when the sectionals begin Saturday.

“I thought the guys did a good job of sharing the ball, working for good shots and passing. Our goal was to get around 20 assists, get those up and the turnovers down,” Big Red head coach Mike Haney said. “Earlier, we thought we could’ve had more but kept missing. We had the assists but just didn’t finish. We did do a good job on the offensive boards.

“We flew around defensively. We got our hands up and kept them in front of us.”

Overall, Steubenville (15-6) dished out 21 assists and committed eight turnovers. Mike Rook and Kyjhaun Hopkins led the assisting department with four each, while eight other players had at least one.

Big Red also owned the rebounding department, as it normally does, with 26 more boards (43-17) and 20 on the offensive side.

All in all, 14 players participated for Steubenville, and all but one scored at least two points. Chase Zimmerman had 11 points and three dimes. Phaeton Hill and Zion Sawyer evenly divided 18. Hill also grabbed five rebounds. Quinn McCoy had eight points, nine rebounds and two assists. Brenton “Inky” Jones added six points, five boards and a first-quarter slam dunk.

For the Wildcats (1-16), although it may be tough to see, all their trying to accomplish is getting better. Their record or by how many points they lose by is secondary.

“This is never fun. This season, there’s nothing fun about this. If you think this is fun, then you’re playing for the wrong guy,” Edison head coach Nate Moses said.

“This is not where we want to be. We’re still trying to get better every day, and that’s our goal going into our game on Saturday.”

Gage Cline led with nine points and six rebounds. Owen Howell and Grady Board each hit a pair of 3-pointers for a dozen points combined. Overall, the team committed 22 turnovers.

“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year that we would get 21 games in, I would’ve never believed it,” Haney said. “Thank goodness the kids did a good job of staying away, wearing their masks and — knock on wood — haven’t had any outbreaks.

“Right now, if you get quarantined, your season is over. They’ve done a good job this whole time, so the last thing you want is for this to happen now.”

TOURNAMENT TIME

Second-seeded Steubenville in Division II East has home court advantage until it has to face top-seeded Meadowbrook in the district finals on March 6, if both teams are able to make it that far.

Haney obviously is taking it one game at a time, and that begins with No. 16 Indian Creek at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

“Going into Saturday, we’re going to have two good days of practice. We know Indian Creek’s not going to surprise us,” he said. “We know they’re going to play man-to-man, play hard and get after it. We have to work on what we have to do.

“They’re finally getting all of their guys back and have played together for the past few weeks. It’s hard to beat a team three times; that’s the old saying. But, we have to worry about what we do and not worry about what they do.”

The Wildcats, No. 17 in Division III East, travels to third-seeded Ridgewood at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

JV ACTION

Big Red rolled to a 40-4 two-quarter victory in the jayvee contest. Ty Pierce led with 10 points and later scored seven in the varsity game. Dakota Coil and Boody Wood each made a bucket for Edison.

Steubenville 78, Edison 25

Edison 6 10 4 5 — 25

Steubenville 19 26 15 18 — 78

EDISON (1-16): Howell 2 0-0 6; Moses 0 0-0 0; Cline 3 3-6 9; Grimes 0 1-2 1; Zastidill 0 1-2 1; Board 2 0-0 6; Wedlake 1 0-0 2; Coil 0 0-0 0; Lancaster 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 8 5-10: 25.

STEUBENVILLE (15-6): Sawyer 4 1-1 9; Gresko 1 0-0 2; Hill 4 0-0 9; Jones 3 0-0 6; McCoy 3 2-3 8; Buggs 2 0-0 5; Zimmerman 5 0-0 11; Rook 2 0-0 6; Jackson 0 0-0 0; Thompson 1 0-0 3; Pierce 2 2-2 7; Drakes 1 0-0 2; Vostatek 3 0-0 6; Hopkins 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 32, 5-6: 78.

3-POINT GOALS: Edison 4 (Howell 2, Board 2); Steubenville 7 (Hill, Buggs, Zimmerman, Rook 2, Thompson, Pierce). REBOUNDS: Edison 17 (Cline 6); Steubenville 43 (McCoy 9). ASSISTS: Edison 7 (Board 4); Steubenville 21 (Hopkins 4, Rook 4). TURNOVERS: Edison 22; Steubenville 8.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today