Photo by Nick Henthorn The Big Reds’ Zara Harveth rises up for a shot inside against the St. Clairsville Red Devils on Monday in Bellaire. Harveth scored 20 points with 10 rebounds in a 62-15 victory.

BELLAIRE — Returning to their home court after playing two games at the Brooke Tip-Off Tournament, the Bellaire Big Reds turned in a performance defined by defense — a trait that they hope will be the norm throughout the season.

“Our defense is going to be a strength for us this year,” Bellaire head coach John Farrier said. “Throughout the season, five games, the highest point total we’ve given up is 40-something, we’ve held opponents to low scoring.

“Today our press was humming and they seemed to have a difficult time with it.”

The Big Reds bested the visiting St. Clairsville Red Devils 62-15 Monday, a dominant win headed up by Zara Harveth, who recorded a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double, and Eliana Mason, who finished with 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Bellaire scored the first basket of the game, but St. Clairsville’s Anna Kain fired back with a 3-pointer which put the Red Devils on top 3-2. That’d be the only lead of the game for St. Clairsville, as the Big Reds built a 20-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Mason converted an and-one driving layup midway through the second quarter to put Bellaire up by 20, 27-7, and the home team led 44-7 at the half.

Mason and Harveth were key cogs for Bellaire’s point-scoring machine Monday, scoring on dribble-drives, jumpshots, and at the foul line.

“Zara and Eliana have been leading us all year, both averaging double-digits,” Farrier said. “Eliana’s really quick, Zara’s a post who’s a matchup problem because usually a big’s guarding her and it’s tough to stay with her. They’re both excellent drivers, excellent passers, and it was working today.

“At first I think they were both frustrated because buckets weren’t really going in, but over time they found the bottom of the basket, they started making their shots and they both put together good games.”

Harveth and Mason were joined in double figures by Allie Ault, who scored 11 points while knocking down three 3-pointers.

St. Clairsville was led by Anna Kain with five points, followed by Makenna Moran and Alexa Druzin with four and Kiya Kyer with two.

“We’ve got to improve on everything,” St. Clairsville head coach Stacey Agnew said. “A team presses us and we just panic. We’ve got to learn to settle down. We’ve got a lot of girls playing varsity for the first time, we’ve just got to settle down and keep working. That’s the big thing, you can’t get disappointed, [Bellaire’s] got a nice team, they’ve got girls who’ve been starting for three years, and it shows. They’ve got a lot of experience, and we’re getting there. We’ll keep working.”

The Red Devils struggled to break Bellaire’s press Monday, committing 22 turnovers- including 15 steals by the Big Reds- while Bellaire did well to limit their own giveaways, with eight on the day- four in the fourth quarter when the Big Reds had substituted in their bench.

“Our defense has been good all year,” Farrier said. “We’ve been forcing turnovers, the problem in the games we did lose was our own turnovers. The last two games we really cut down our turnovers so we’ve told them, if you turn the ball over, obviously you can’t score, but it leads to easy baskets for the other team. As long as we keep turnovers down, I think we’re a pretty good team.”

Bellaire has won their last two games after beating Brooke on Friday. They sit at 3-2 on the season and next face Beaver Local on the road Dec. 7. St. Clairsville plays Cambridge at home Dec. 7.