T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY ST. CLAIRSVILLE’S Drew Sefsick looks for somewhere to go with the ball as New Philadelphia’s Mitchell Stokey defends Friday.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — New Philadelphia dictated tempo, played impressive defense and ran its offense to a tee.

Add all of that up and the result is a night that St. Clairsville and head coach Ryan Clifford won’t want to remember anytime soon.

The Quakers, who were visiting St. Clairsville High School for the first time since 1961, cruised to a 64-38 victory over the Red Devils.

“We just were not sharp,” Clifford said. “I thought we were prepared, had good practices leading up to the game, and honestly, I wouldn’t have guessed this (kind of game) in a million years.”

New Philadelphia wasted little time in asserting itself. It stormed out of the gate to a 16-4 lead in the opening quarter.

The Red Devils seemed to settled down in the second quarter, trimming the deficit to eight at halftime and only trailed by nine at the start of the fourth. However, the Quakers Landyn Rother made sure any thoughts of a St. C. rally went away quickly. He scored the first 10 points of the fourth himself and eventually finished with a game-high 18.

“Give their kids credit because they had some kids make some shots who hadn’t made shots in the games I’ve seen,” Clifford said. “They played well and that’s to their credit. It’s a bad combination when the opponent plays well and you don’t. That’s normally not a winning combo.”

The Red Devils didn’t score for the first 3:10 of the fourth before junior Ryan McCort got two at the foul line.

“Our kids played four full quarters for probably the first time all season,” New Philadelphia head coach Matt Voll said. “This one feels good for the fact that we played hard and together for four quarters. I like the grit we showed (after losing Tuesday at East Liverpool).”

The Quakers defense — both in the full court and half court — proved to be the difference. They limited the Red Devils to only 14 field goals and St. C.’s only 3-point goal came with a minute to play when the game was long decided.

“St. Clairsville is a very talented offensive team that’s put some really impressive numbers, so we just tried to contest everything,” Voll said.

On top of that portion of the defense, St. Clairsville turned the ball over 18 times and were clobbered on the glass.

“That is not a winning recipe,” Clifford said of the turnover and field goal comparison. “I don’t know. It’s been a while since we’ve been in a real slugfest and maybe that time away hurt.”

Complementing Roth in the scoring column were senior Mitchell Stokey and junior Kayden Schoelles. Each had 10 points.

McCort was the lone double-figure scorer for the Devils. He finished with 11. Junior post Avery Henry finished with nine.

St. C. Is back on the home boards Tuesday against Steubenville.

New Philadelphia 64, St. Clairsville 38

NEW PHILADELPHIA (64) — Roth 6, 5-6 18; Vickers 3, 0-0 7; Stokey 5, 0-0 10; Vandall 1, 4-4 6; Schoelles 4, 0-0 10; Ku. Tetzloff 2, 1-2 7; Ko. Tetzloff 0, 0-0 0; Karl 1, 0-0 2; Lowery 1, 0-0 2; Miller 1, 0-0 2; Totals: 24, 10-12 64. ST. CLAIRSVILLE (38) — Oberdick 3, 0-0 6; McCort 2, 6-8 11; Sefsick 2, 2-5 6, Balgo 1, 0-0 2; Henry 4, 1-2 9; Woodford 2, 0-0 2; Thoburn 0, 0-0 0; Crist 0, 0-0 0; Parsons 0, 0-0 0; Totals: 14, 9-15 38.

3-point goals: NP — Roth, Vickers, Schoelles (2), Ku. Tetzloff (2). StC — McCort.