Photo by Nick Henthorn Bellaire’s Zara Harveth drives to the basket during the Big Reds’ home victory over the Martins Ferry Purple Riders on Monday, Jan. 8 2023 inside “The House of Champions” in Bellaire.

Editor’s note: The headline on this story has been updated due to an error.

BELLAIRE — Monday’s rivalry game between Bellaire and visiting Martins Ferry checked off a couple of boxes as far as cliches go.

In ‘a game of two halves,’ Bellaire came out of the locker rooms for the third quarter looking like a different team, turning a halftime deficit into a double-digit win, defending their homecourt 60-45 against the invading Purple Riders in a game where the Big Reds ‘just wanted it more than the other team,’ to hear either coach talk about it.

“Anytime against Ferry, it’s always heated in all my years here,” Bellaire head coach John Farrier said. “Coach Reasbeck does a good job, he gets his girls going and it’s always a fun, entertaining game. Started off bad, we were down I think 15-3. […] But we chipped away tonight, our girls were resilient. As we chipped away we started gaining more confidence and they started feeling the pressure a little bit, it kind of flipped the script in the second half.”

“I liked how we started, we scored 20-something points,” Martins Ferry head coach Dave Reasbeck said. “Then we follow it up with a three-point quarter, and it got worse after that. Bellalire came in, they wanted to beat us. We beat them three times in a row and they had it in their minds to beat us […] My assistant said it, Bellaire stepped up, and as a whole we backed up. That’s not acceptable.”

Ferry came out of the gates with a 15-2 opening run, and led 22-13 after the first quarter. Danielle Lude hit two 3’s in the frame, and Lindsay Best scored 11 of her 14 points in the opening quarter. While Bellaire struggled to score inside, Best and the Purple Riders racked up baskets around the hoop and drew trips to the free-throw line to boot.

The second half didn’t have much scoring, Ferry managing three points in the quarter, Bellaire six.

The Big Reds’ defense was turning a corner in the second quarter, and going into the second half, the offense would soon follow suit.

“Out of the gates [Martins Ferry] made a couple 3’s, they came out of the gates making shots, that helped them settle in,” Farrier said. “We were missing our shots, I felt like we were a little tight. Even easy ones, in that 15-3 run we had like four layups we missed.

“I felt like if we’d made those we would’ve been in okay shape, but we didn’t, and on the defensive end, some of our girls were struggling defensively but once we picked it up defensively, we got some steals and started making some buckets. The momentum just kind of rolled our way.”

Bellaire worked their way back into the game with extra possessions afforded by way of Ferry turnovers. Four Rider turnovers in five possessions at one point late in the quarter helped the Big Reds take their first lead, 34-32 on a Rhyan O’Grady 3-pointer assisted by Zara Harveth with 1:50 on the clock. Ferry’s Gianna Chirpas scored inside to tie the game up on their next time down the court, but the scales stayed tipped towards Bellaire, O’Grady nabbing a steal in the backcourt and converting an and-one to put Bellaire back on top.

“We were giving good half-court pressure, half-court heat,” Farrier said of his team’s defense. “Our girls kept coming after them in the halfcourt in the second half.”

The Big Reds led 39-34 going into the fourth.

O’Grady scored 10 points in the third quarter, putting through a game-high 18 on Monday.

The fourth quarter belonged to Bellaire’s Zara Harveth, who scored 12 points while going 4-5 at the line in the fourth. Ferry never came closer than four points, 44-40 early in the quarter, as Bellaire slammed the door shut with a pullup jumper in the short corner by Harveth with 53 seconds left, a shot which had the Big Reds up 15, 60-45.

“We didn’t step up, we backed up,” Reasbeck said. “We didn’t play well, I give [Bellaire] credit, they did what they had to do to win.”

O’Grady’s 18 was followed by 16 for Harveth, 14 for Eliana Mason, eight for Allie Ault and four for Sidney Rowson– the only five Big Reds out on the floor until the final seconds.

“Zara and Eliana have been steady scorers,” Farrier said. “When we have Allie Ault or Rhyan O’Grady make some big shots– Rhyan O’Grady made some big shots in the third quarter– it really helps us.

“We played five girls until the end there, we pride ourselves on being well-conditioned and they went hard without a break the whole game. I’m so proud of their effort, every one of our five starters scored and were valuable on the defensive end for sure.”

For Ferry, Best’s 14 was followed by 11 for Lude, nine for Chirpas, seven for Maddie Lucas, and two apiece from Lakyn Call and Lindse Sidon.