Michael D. McElwain UP, UP AND AWAY — Catholic Central’s Andrew Dorsey goes up for a layup in front of Edison’s Brayden Moses and Dakota Coil during Friday’s game inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

STEUBENVILLE — Catholic Central rode a strong fourth quarter performance to a 50-37 victory over Edison on senior night Friday inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

The Crusaders, now 3-12, were up five (21-16) at the break but watch its lead evaporate in the third thanks to the offensive effort of Edison’s Brayden Moses and Tremendous West. Moses opened the second half with a 3-pointer and West followed with a deuce to knot the score.

Central’s Andrew Dorsey put his team back on top with a triple from the corner but West answered to again tie things up. Thanks to connections from behind the arc by Daniel Bolster and Benji Rook along with three more Dorsey points, the hosts build a 33-26 advantage heading into the final eight minutes.

Another West 3 pulled Edison to within six (36-30) midway through the fourth. Central then went on an 8-0 run to seal the deal. Rook drained a triple, Bolster hit a jumper and Dorsey got three the old-fashioned way to make it 44-30.

“When you are 2-12, any win is a good win,” said Central coach Don Ogden. “That is a much-improved Edison team from when we saw them earlier in the year. Credit to their coaching staff for the development. They have come a long way.

“Our kids played hard tonight and I think that is a testament to how bad they wanted this win for our seniors — Jaden Bradley and George Harris. Fortunately, we were able to win this one for those two guys.”

Central grabbed a 7-6 advantage after the first quarter and led by eight (21-13) late in the second thanks to Rook’s first long range connection of the evening. West swished a triple just before the buzzer to put the score at 21-16.

“Hats off to Central,” Edison coach Jeremy Matics said. “We got sped up a little in the fourth quarter. I thought we had a good game plan coming in — we were looking to slow things down. In the fourth quarter, things just went south kind of quick.

“We did a good job of following our game plan in the first half. We slowed it down and tried to control things offensively. And, we played hard on defense. When we got sped up, it seemed like we couldn’t make a shot.”

Dorsey had a monster night to lead Central. The junior scored a game-high 22 points and completed his double-double by snaring 10 rebounds. Rook finished with 10 points.

When discussing his team losing its lead early in the third, Ogden said “that has been a trend for us all season.”

“Sometimes we will get a lead and then I’m not sure what happens,” he said. “It might be that we lose focus, it might be poor coaching and it probably is a combination of both things.

“Tonight we were able to rebound. We overcame the adversity of losing a lead, came back and built another lead.”

West paced the now 1-16 Wildcats with 14 points. Moses contributed 13.

“As a team, we are improving every day,” Matics said. “We had a lot of good practices this week. We just can’t seem to find the scoring we need to get over this speed bump we have.

“Tremendous and Brayden played really well for us tonight. Defensively, I thought everyone played really hard.”

Prior to the varsity tip, Central took time to honor Bradley and Harris.

“My two seniors are guys who lead by example,” Ogden said. “They don’t yell. They are just good guys who do what they are supposed to do. The rest of the kids follow that lead and respect them.

“They don’t talk a lot but when they do, our underclassmen respect it and do what they say. You really couldn’t ask for two finer young men to represent Catholic Central.”

CRUSADER SWEEP

Timmy Mihalyo knocked down 12 points and Eli Fayak added 10 as Central rolled to a 42-9 win in the junior varsity contest.

Deacon Rawson tallied four to pace the Wildcats.

UP NEXT

Edison had no time to rest as it was scheduled to play Martins Ferry at 10 a.m. in the Buckeye 8 tournament. The conference event was held this season at Beaver Local.

Central travels to Bellaire Tuesday.

Catholic Central 50, Edison 37

Edison 6 10 10 11 — 37

Central 7 14 12 17 — 50

EDISON (1-16): West 4 4-5 14; Wedlake 1 0-0 3; Rawson 1 0-2 2; Petrey 1 0-0 3; Scaffidi 0 0-0 0; Jones 0 0-0 0; Moses 5 1-2 13; Dinger 1 0-0 2; Coil 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 5-9 37.

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (3-12): Long 1 2-2 4; Rook 3 1-2 10; Pergi 1 2-4 4; Dorsey 8 4-6 22; Bolster 2 0-0 5; Harris 0 0-0 0; Grimm 0 0-0 0; Mihalyo 1 2-4 5; Bradley 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16 11-18 50.

3-POINT GOALS: Edison 6 (West 2; Moses 2; Wedlake; Petrey); Central 7 (Rook 3; Dorsey 2; Bolster; Mihalyo); REBOUNDS: Edison 25 (Moses 7; West 6); Central 32 (Dorsey 10; Pergi 7); TURNOVERS: Edison 17; Central 17.