BELLAIRE — It was quite the productive opening week of basketball for St. Clairsville.

The Red Devils ran past Bellaire, 68-25, Friday night at The House of Champions. Three days prior, Coach Ryan Clifford’s charges downed another neighboring rival – Martins Ferry – in a double-overtime thriller. The Red Devils needed to overcome a 17-point deficit to emerge victorious against the talented Purple Riders.

St. Clairsville’s triumph over the Big Reds was fueled by a quick first-quarter start.

The Red Devils sprinted to a 19-7 upper hand at the quarter pole and never looked back. The entire second half was played under mercy-rule guidelines as St. Clairsville built a 50-14 advantage by intermission.

The winners were on top 59-21 entering the final chapter.

“Coming down here we were focused on execution,” Clifford said. “We knew we weren’t going to press fullcourt, so we wanted to stress good halfcourt man defense. I thought we did a good job at that.

“Offensively, we did a great job of moving and finding the open man. I was really pleased with our ability to get quality shots,” he added. “We had real good offensive balance. I know Bellaire is shorthanded but I really liked how we played tonight.”

All told, 10 Red Devils found the scoring column as Clifford substituted liberally.

Leading the St. Clairsville scoring parade was Griffin Straub as he tallied 17 points. The Indiana, Pa. commit also grabbed eight rebounds while blocking three shots.

Niko Jacob was the only other Red Devil to each twin digits, netting 14 points to go with a solid all-around floor game. Lucas Causby chipped in with seven counters.

St. Clairsville returns to action on John Jenkins Court, hosting Barnesville on Tuesday.

“This is a fun group to coach. I love coming to practice everyday,” Clifford said. “The guys really like each other and they could care less who is scoring.”

The loss dropped the youthful and injury-strapped Big Reds to 1-3. All three blemishes have come at the hands of quality foes, Bridgeport and Cambridge being the other two.

Junior Jace Violet led Coach J.R. Battista’s squad with eight points. Trevor Dowery was next with six points.

Things get no easier for Bellaire as it hosts Martins Ferry Tuesday.

“St. C. is an experienced team and their length and athleticism bothered us and made it tough for us to score in the halfcourt,” Battista offered. “We had too many empty possessions, and against a quality team that is a problem.”

Bellaire was guilty of 17 turnovers. St. Clairsville, meanwhile, took good care of the ball, committing just five miscues.

St. Clairsville also prevailed in the reserve contest.