STEUBENVILLE — Just reaching halfcourt was a struggle for the Steubenville girls basketball team on Thursday against a tough Bellaire squad.

The Big Reds’ full court press made life tough for Steubenville, and a pair of offensive outbursts lifted them to a 51-41 victory to spoil senior night.

That press was on full display in the first half, as Big Red (10-7) scored 10 points and committed 10 turnovers. It trailed Bellaire (16-2), 26-10, at halftime.

“They’re hard for us to guard because of their speed and quickness,” Steubenville head coach Jeff Lombardo said. “Our advantage was our size, but the trouble was getting the ball down the court. They’re so fast that it felt like playing against six or seven girls.”

Steubenville began the third quarter on a 10-2 scoring run and trailed 28-20 with 5:07 left. Bellaire, however, answered with a 13-0 run and led 41-30 after three quarters.

Big Red managed a mini 7-0 run from the end of the third to the beginning of the fourth, but it was too late.

“These girls have been together for a while now,” Bellaire head coach John Farrier said. “Sometimes they maybe get relaxed, but then turn on the switch and pick up the pace a little bit. They’ve been pretty good about knowing when to pick it up. This game was a tough one for us because we just finished up the Buckeye 8 and now have the OVACs coming up. They know when to turn on the switch.”

Bellaire’s press also made Steubenville’s life tough in getting the ball to Madison Fields and Makayla Abram. Fields finished with eight points and 12 rebounds. Abram, who sat early on due to foul trouble, recorded 12 points and 10 boards.

“Part of our game plan was to contain them but, in order to contain them, we had to get good pressure up front and make it difficult for the guards to get it to them,” Farrier said. “If they got to their half court game, it would have been tougher to stop them. Our game plan was to get three girls up top and give them full court pressure.”

Big Red made its third quarter run because the press was not there. When Bellaire had its 13-0 spurt, the press returned and forced four turnovers in the process.

“When we made that run, our defense had deflections, so we were able to get the ball down in transition,” Lombardo said. “When they scored and were able to set up their press, that’s when we struggled. When we made our run, they either missed long or we got a deflection.”

Kat Davis paced the Big Reds with a game-high 20 pionts, five rebounds and three assists. Maci Crozier had 16 points and three boards. Michaela Flaherty added four points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

“They’re a really good team and have four girls who have been playing forever,” Lombardo said. “You pretty much have to play perfect to beat a team like that. We missed some shots in the first half and let them get away. We went into a 2-3 zone to get them to shoot over the top of us. I thought we ended up winning the third and fourth quarters, but it wasn’t enough to make up for how we started.”

For Steubenville, Elexis Martin tallied a team-high 13 points and four rebounds off the bench. All in all, Steubenville turned the ball over 22 times (eight in the final frame).

Big Red is back in action Monday, hosting Monroe Central in an OVAC consolation contest. Bellaire, the top seed in Class 3A, hosts fourth-seeded Union Local on the same day.

“We believe our field is a pretty competitve field,” Farrier said. “We faced Union Local twice this year and had good success. Fort Frye and Magnolia are having good years as well, so hopefully we make it to the next round. We’re going to have some competition in the finals.”