Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Tyson Pastor (10) tips the ball towards the basket Friday night as teammate Drew Gasber (11) waits for a rebound and Harrison Central’s EJ Keener (21) defends during action from the Red Devils’ 57-54 victory on John Jenkins Court. The Huskies’ Brady Hyre (15) is also pictured.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — St. Clairsville celebrated Senior Night on Friday, but visiting Harrison Central tried to spoil the festivities.

The Red Devils, with just three players cracking the scorebook, knocked down all but one of 18 free throws in the second half — including a perfect 10-for-10 in the third quarter — in holding off a valiant upset bid by the Huskies, 57-54, on John Jenkins Court.

With the hard-earned triumph, St. Clairsville’s five seniors — who were all in the starting lineup — ran their career win total to 54.

“I give them (Harrison Central) a lot of credit. They probably deserved a better fate than what they got,” St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said. “They outscraped us a lot. We couldn’t get an offensive rebound for most of the night and we couldn’t knock down shots from the perimeter.”

Senior Tyson Pastor, the Red Devils No. 3 all-time leading scorer, tickled the twine twice to give the hosts a 55-54 lead with 55.8 seconds remaining. Clifford immediately called timeout to set up his defensive strategy.

Harrison Central (5-12) — which led by 10, 37-27 early in the third quarter — was content to hold the ball for the final shot. However, the Huskies were guilty of an over-and-back call at midcourt with 25 ticks showing. It was the fourth turnover of the quarter and the 19th in the game.

“It came down to a couple of possessions late,” Harrison Central head coach Aaron Foldi said. “They got a couple of offensive rebounds at the end where we had to foul and, to their credit, they knocked down the foul shots.”

St. Clairsville (13-3) inbounded the ball and Pastor was immediately fouled with 20.3 left to play. He calmly sank both shots as the lead grew to 57-54.

“These seniors have been playing on this court since they were in the second and third grades,” Clifford noted. “It was a good night, but we would have liked it to be more celebratory for a while. We were lucky to survive tonight, but the goal, as it is before every game, was to finish with one more point than our opponent.”

Foldi called a timeout at the 14.6 mark to devise a potential game-tying three-pointer, but Brady Elliott’s attempt from the left wing caromed off the rim and bounced out of bounds as the final buzzer sounded.

“We talk a lot about effort this season. I know what kind of heart we’ve got in that locker room. Our guys really showed that tonight with how hard they competed. We talk about taking care of the ball on each possession and executing at a high level for four quarters. I thought we did that tonight.”

The contest was deadlocked 11 times and saw the lead exchange hands on 16 occasions, including seven times in the back-and-forth fourth quarter.

The Huskies executed the offensive game plan to a tee and limited the Red Devils to just one shot per possession in the first half in building a 31-25 advantage, but free throw shooting carried the hosts.

St. Clairsville made 23 of 27 charity tosses on the night, with Pastor going 11-for-12 among his 15 points. Straub, who came off the bench led the way with 22 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots. Brady Schafer, who never came off the floor, had 20 points.

Elliott, who was saddled with foul troubles for most of the game, led the Huskies with 18 points and nine rebounds. Bryson Kamarec had a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards, while Brady Hyre finished with 10 points and Reed Arbaugh added eight points and a like number of rebounds before fouling out in the final minute.

The victory was the third gut-check win of the week for St. Clairsville. It also survived tests from East Liverpool and Steubenville in the last six days, but has won 11 of its last 12.

“Sometimes you never know what you are going to get on Senior Night,” Clifford admitted. “Even though we beat East Liverpool and Steubenville, our most important game was the next one and that was tonight.

Harrison Central held a commanding, 41-22, advantage off the glass, but its 19 turnovers were a dozen more than St. Clairsville charted. St. Clairsville was 16 of 45 from the floor. Harrison Central had three more field goals on the same amount of shots.

The Red Devils are back in action tonight as they travel to the John Marshall Field House in Moundsville to meet the Monarchs. The Huskies return home to host Malvern tonight.