ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The River Pilots have dominated the confines of Harrison Central High School the last two years, capturing OVAC Championships in back-to-back years at the venue, and in a new location this year, the ECO Center, River hopes to keep the good times rollin’.

“We can’t wait to get there,” River head coach Rick Isaly said. “I was there back in 2018, 2019, then COVID came along and we went to Harrison Central. I’ve been waiting to go back there because it’s a great place to play. My girls haven’t ever played out there so they’re ready to go.”

The two-seeded Pilots are seeking their third straight conference crown on Saturday at 4 p.m. inside the ECO Center, their opponent the No. 1 seed in the 2A tournament, the Steubenville Catholic Crusaders.

“We’re very excited and honored to be here,” Crusaders head coach Rocky Bragg said. “Coming into the season with only one senior, we weren’t sure what kind of season we’d have. We have a schedule full of 4A teams and we thought we might be biting off a little more than we could chew. Thankfully the girls have caught onto my concepts quickly, we’ve installed a bunch of new material this year to make us competitive, and we won some games that we didn’t know how were going to turn out.

“Hats off to these ladies, they play hard, they’re open to grow as players and accept new gameplans, and they responded well. We pulled off some good victories this season, over Edison, Oak Glen, Frontier, and now we’re excited to be heading into the OVAC 2A championship.”

Steubenville Catholic last captured a conference title in 2022, before the previous two years of Pilots victories.

The Crusaders have a talented squad led by players like Mary Rohde, supplying 10.3 points per game and 12.6 rebounds per game, Natalie Cherepko, scoring 8.1 points per game with 2.6 steals per game, and a trio of sophomore starters– Mara Delaney, the team’s sixth man last year and leading scorer this year at 12.5 points per, center Monica Bolster, and guard Aurelia Hoover.

“I graduated three starters and so, how were we going to backfill that?” Bragg said. “Well it ends up that I’m starting three sophomores, all three are first-year starters.”

River sees similarities between themselves and Steubenville Catholic.

“They are a bunch of scrappy girls, they play really hard, they get up and down the floor, they want to press you. They’re just a lot like us. We want to press and get up-and-down the floor also. I’m looking for a really good game, a really exciting game. We’re going to have our hands full.”

The Pilots are led by Kaylee Hagan, who scored her 1,000th point in the OVAC semifinals against Southern. The senior is scoring 17 points per game with seven rebounds. Reese Hobbs is averaging 10 and seven, Zoey Fox is averaging nine and six, and Maci Isaly is averaging 8.5 and four. Isaly mentioned all of these players, and Carleigh Trifonoff, who he said may be his best defensive player.

It’s a new-look squad for the Pilots, but one who Isaly thinks can continue the programs’ success.

“We were blessed to have a point guard like Kelsey Harlan for four years, we got two OVAC championships and two district runner-ups,” Bragg said. “I knew it’d be tough to replace her, but we’ve done a good job and we’ve gotten better as the season’s gone on with handling the ball. Maci Isaly is my point guard and she’s come a long way with handling the ball.

Bragg thinks the came will come down to which team can handle the other’s pressure the best.

“Coach Isaly is a tremendous coach, I’ve been familiar with him since he had Jensen Caretti, who I coached in AAU basketball. He does a great job with his program, he’s here all the time, he’s going for his third straight OVAC championship. We know we have our hands full, we know their style of play is an up-tempo defense, and we’ve tried to prepare as best we can for that. Our goal is to stay level-headed, not get rushed, and try to get to a point where we’re breaking the press or getting to set up our half-court offense.”

The 2A game, set for 4 p.m., will go on after the 1A game between Cameron and Frontier, and will be followed by the 3A game of Wheeling Central vs. Fort Frye.