Photo/KRISTIN MAZGAJ ST. CLAIRSVILLE senior Will Balgo goes up for a shot as Meadowbrook's Davis Singleton defends during the first half of Saturday's Division II sectional basketball tournament game in Byesville. The Colts cruised to a 70-47 victory.

BYESVILLE — St. Clairsville has shown the ability to score the ball efficiently and effectively all season.

Clearly, Meadowbrook was well aware of the gaudy numbers which include a near 69 points a game and 129 makes from behind the 3-point line.

The top-seeded Colts jumped on the Red Devils early and never let up en route to a convincing 70-47 victory Saturday night in a Division II tournament game.

“We ran into a team that was pretty darn good (Saturday),” St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said. “With the way they played (against us), they’re going to beat a lot of teams with that kind of performance.”

Both statements were spot on.

Meadowbrook, which won the district last season and advanced to the regional before the tourney was shut down due to COVID-19, appears to be on a mission to make another run deep into March.

“We’re not bad,” Meadowbrook head coach Lou “Scooter” Tolzda said matter of factly. “I think we’ve been under the radar a little bit. We’ve had some close games, won a couple of close ones, and I really expected (at the tournament drawing) that we were going to get St. Clairsville or Cambridge. That’s fine. He did what he had to do.”

Tolzda admitted that he and his staff try to challenge their players. They do that with a rugged schedule and then mentally, too. They didn’t need to go over the Red Devils’ scouting report long before the challenge was taken by the Colts.

“We knew they were a prolific offensive team, but I thought our kids locked them down on defense,” Tolzda said. “We weren’t letting them shoot an open 3.”

Similar to Clifford, Tolzda was spot on with that analysis, too.

Any offensive rhythm the Red Devils formed was hard earned. The Colts shot out to a 21-10 lead after one and upped the margin to 41-21 at the half.

Unlike football when St. Clairsville mounted a monumental comeback against the Colts, Meadowbrook made sure no thoughts of a momentum shift occurred in hoops. Drew Webster and Johna McCall combined to hit a trio of treys in a like number of Meadowbrook possessions to open the third quarter to extend the lead to 50-23.

“Meadowbrook made some shots that I am not sure we had in the scouting report at times,” Clifford said. “We weren’t great, but we weren’t bad either. They made us bad. They played really well and deserve a lot of credit for how well they played.”

Meadowbrook, which cashed in 29 field goals, was lights out on offense. Davis Singleton and McCall led the way with 15, while Jerome Todd chipped in 14 and Jake Singleton finished with 12.

“We thrive on defensive rebounding, making an outlet pass and getting the game going at our pace, but when you’re taking the ball out of the net, you can’t get into transition,” Clifford explained. “When they did miss, they’d usually beat us to the ball for an offensive rebound. That’s where the game was lost early … on the glass. We’d defend them pretty well, they’d miss, but get an offensive rebound and score and we’re taking it out of the net.”

The deficit grew to as many as 32 in the fourth before both coaches emptied their benches.

The Red Devils were led by junior center Avery Henry, who scored 14 points and completed the double-double with 10 boards. He was the lone St. C. starter to equal or exceed his scoring average.

Drew Sefsick finished with nine, but had just one field goal. Junior Ryan McCort, who according to Tolzda was a focal point of the Colts’ defensive game plan, was held to six.

“We weren’t letting McCort shoot an open 3; we weren’t going to let Sefsick drive hard right and we weren’t going to let Balgo shoot it,” Tolzda said. “And we were just hoping and praying Henry didn’t take us up through the rim when he caught the ball because we knew, for sure, we couldn’t stop him.”

All told, the Colts (22-2) held a 35-21 edge on the boards. They were also only guilty of five turnovers, which was three fewer than the Red Devils.

Scoring:

ST. CLAIRSVILLE (47) — Oberdick 2, 0-0 4; McCort 2, 2-4 6; Sefsick 1, 6-6 9; Balgo 2, 0-1 5; Henry 5, 4-4 14; Woodford 1, 0-0 3; Thoburn 2, 0-0 6; Totals: 15, 12-15 47. MEADOWBROOK (70) — Webster 3, 0-0 8; Todd 5, 3-6 14; McCall 6, 0-0 15; J. Singleton 5, 0-0 12; D. Singleton 7, 0-1 15; Lacey 2, 0-0 4; Phillips 1, 0-0 2; Parker 0, 0-0 0; Hupp 0, 0-1 0; Totals: 29, 3-8 70.

3-point goals: St. C. — Sefsick, Balgo, Woodford, Thoburn (2). M — Webster (2), Todd, McCall (3), J. Singleton (2), D. Singleton.