Photo/KRISTIN MAZGAJ ST. CLAIRSVILLE’S Avery Henry goes up for a shot against Bellaire’s Trenton Wilson during Friday’s game in St. Clairsville. The Red Devils posted a 70-62 victory.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – St. Clairsville has not lost to Bellaire in a while on the hardwood. To be more specific, it’s 21 games and in a little less than a 10-year span. The Devils fought off a slow start and a feisty effort from the Big Reds en route to a hard earned 70-62 victory for number 22 in a row.

“It was a good effort. They worked hard, they tried hard and tried to gut one out, but you know, like I always tell them, you are supposed to play hard. You don’t get extra points for playing hard, you are supposed to. You don’t get medals for trying, you get medals for winning,” stated Bellaire coach J.R. Battista following the contest. “We are close. Sooner or later we are going to break through and we are going to get one, but it wasn’t tonight. That’s a credit to St.C. They made plays. They made some tough treys, they made some guarded treys, it spread it out on us and we just couldn’t get back into it.”

In all, the Devils made seven, 3-pointers on the evening.

Battista continued “We made a good effort at the end, and we made a good run to try to get it down, but we needed another steal to make them nervous, but they made the foul shots and they made the plays to win.”

“Our energy wasn’t great to start for whatever reason; big game tomorrow night, we’ve had some success with them (Bellaire) in the recent past, for whatever reason. We’ve got to understand that we’re not good enough to just come out and float around. We got on them at the quarter break about our energy and effort and from that point on we were pretty solid in that sense, “noted Red Devils boss Ryan Clifford. “We made some game mistakes, but our energy and effort improved, and the score improved because of it. They (Bellaire) can score and we told them in the scouting report that they have scored against everybody, so you’d better concentrate on the defensive end..”

The visitors held a definitive advantage in the first, as the Red Devils (9-4) struggled to find an offensive rhythm. Bellaire (2-12) thoroughly outworked the hosts in the first eight minutes, forcing four turnovers and out-rebounding St. C., 7-4. This accompanied by a pair of timely threes by Owen Ward and tough inside shots by Trenton Wilson left Bellaire up 20-14 after one. St. Clairsville was far from done, though.

The Red Devils put on a defensive clinic, holding Bellaire to just two second-quarter baskets. On the offensive side, St. Clairsville got its inside-outside game running like a well oiled machine, assisting on five of its six baskets in the period, which included a pair of threes by Will Balgo and a bonus bomb from Brett Vike. When the halftime buzzer sounded, the hosts held a 32-24 advantage.

The hosts’ lead ballooned to 11 early in the third, after which both teams played even-up before Trenton Wilson started to take over for Bellaire, helping close the gap to 46-37 in favor of the Devils with 2:47 remaining. StC then received a quick pair of baskets from Drew Sefsick and Brett Vike to go back up by nine 31 seconds later. The deficit stayed around there for the remainder of the period, after which St. Clairsville led 53-43.

Bellaire got an offensive boost from Wilson again in the final quarter, but couldn’t get within an arms-length of St. Clairsville, as the Devils took the air out of the ball by executing lengthy possessions against a Big Reds’ half-court trap, which saw six Red Devils dent in the scoring column by working their way open. The visitors saw a spurt in the final 120 seconds that cut the lead under 10, but Cade Wolfe and Nate Harris salted away a pair of one-and-ones to seal the game.

The Red Devils received double-digit efforts from four players, led by a yeoman’s effort from Nate Harris, who finished with 19 points, five boards and five assists.

Avery Henry added 14 with five rebounds and two blocks, Balgo added 13 and Vike scored 10.

Wilson was all over the place for the Big Reds, scoring a game-high 25 points to go with 12 rebounds and three steals.

Andrew Littell finished with 14 and Owen Ward scored 12.

St. Clairsville returns to action this evening as the host East Liverpool. Bellaire hosts Bridgeport Tuesday evening.