Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Griffin Straub goes strong to the basket Tuesday as Martins Ferry’s Elijah Roby (24) and Gavin Little (1) defend. Straub scored 34 points as the Red Devils outlasted the Purple Riders, 86-85, in double overtime.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Trailing by 17 points midway through the third quarter Tuesday night, things weren’t looking real good for the St. Clairsville boys basketball team in its season-opener against Martins Ferry, which was also making its debut.

However, as Yogi Berra once famously said, “It ain’t over until it’s over.”

The Red Devils stormed back to outlast the Purple Riders, 86-85, in a thriller before a packed house at John Jenkins Court inside St. Clairsville High School.

“That’s the one thing I like about this team. So far in our scrimmages we’ve given it our all and we did that again tonight,” St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said. “No one got discouraged. I don’t even think we looked up at the scoreboard to see what the score was. We just went one stop at a time.”

The contest was deadlocked at 69 at the end of 32 minutes and knotted at 76 following the first 4-minute extra sessions.

St. Clairsville was on the short end of an 83-79 margin midway through the second 4-minute overtime, but tied the game on four free throws by junior Luke Schafer. After Maurice Barnett gave Martins Ferry an 85-83 lead with 1:18 showing, Niko Jacob scored on an inside move with 50 ticks left.

Martins Ferry misfired on its next trip down the court and Griffin Straub rebounded before being fouled with 36 seconds remaining. The Indiana, Pa. commit knocked down the first shot, but the second rimmed at as Martins Ferry’s Walkquem Cox rebounded.

Following another timeout by the Purple Riders, another shot clanked off the rim and Brody Clifford came up with the loose ball before being fouled. He missed shots with three seconds on the clock, but Smith’s heave from midcourt was off the mark as the buzzer sounded.

“I think you would be hard pressed to find a more exciting game in the state,” Clifford said. “There’s no love lost there for sure, but the intensity in the gym throughout the night had that March feel to it.”

Martins Ferry came out on fire as it blistered the nets from three-point range. The Purple Riders tickled the twine 15 times from beyond the arc, with Smith leading the way with five as he finished with 23 points to tie Anthony Booth for the team lead. Gavin Little ended with 22.

The 6-7 Straub led all scorers in the contest with 34 points. Schafer added 16, Jacob a dozen and Ollie Muhly 11.

“A simple lack of execution on our part with the lead the entire game,” Martins Ferry head coach Derek Edwards said. “We had that big lead in the third and our players lost focus of what we are supposed to do. The disappointing part is that it is some of our leaders. Thankfully, it is just one game.

“Obviously, we have to work on situational basketball,” he added. “The positive is we saw a lot of bright spots.”

Both teams return to action on Friday as St. Clairsville visits Bellaire and Martins Ferry debuts at home against Union Local.