ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Saturday inside Ohio University Eastern’s ECO Center was the third championship in four years involving the Oak Glen Golden Bears and Indian Creek Redskins. Thanks to a late scoring run, all three contests have gone to Indian Creek.

Creek’s girls basketball team secured a fourth-straight OVAC 4A championship on Saturday, defeating rival Oak Glen 45-38 on the back of a clutch 11-1 scoring run to end the fourth quarter in a game where the Golden Bears had consistently clung onto a small lead before the pivotal final frame.

“We were able to execute down the stretch there and get the baskets we needed to to come out on top. We got the stops on the other end too,” Indian Creek head coach Steve Eft said.

Oak Glen, who reached the championship game after defeating top-seeded Union Local, led by one after the first quarter, 12-11, and went up 6-0 after back-to-back 3-pointers out of the gate.

The Golden Bears’ Ella Stewart hit back-to-back 3’s in the second quarter to get Oak Glen’s lead to six, 20-14, partway through the second quarter, but Creek stormed back to take a one-point lead at halftime, 21-20.

Stewart finished with a team-high 10 points for the Golden Bears. Emma Everett scored seven.

Oak Glen led by one point after the third quarter, 31-30, and led by three, 37-34, with 6:10 left.

That is when Creek took off, the dagger a 3-pointer by Gracie Klinesmith off a feed from Riley Sadler which put Creek ahead by four points in the waning minutes of Saturday’s championship nightcap.

Riley Sadler scored 10 points, teammates Gracie Klinesmith and Gabby Taylor each scored seven, and Kaydence Walker poured in 18, ending the contest up as the John Howell Memorial Memorial Most Valuable Player of the game.

“We worked all summer, all season for this,” Walker said after the game. “We knew we wanted to win this four times in a row and it’s crazy that we did. I’m so happy for me and my team with all the work that we put in.”

A fourth-straight conference championship left Eft impressed with his team, especially his upperclassmen.

“They buy into what we try to teach them and it all paid off in the end,” Eft said. “It was just great to see. I know our seniors have been through a lot and they’ve bought in from day one and they’re great teammates.”