Photo by Andrew Grimm Shadyside’s Jaylynne Johnson works to the paint past Steubenville Catholic’s Shya Garcia

STEUBENVILLE — While the third-place game was not the game either Shadyside or Steubenville Catholic had hoped to be playing in at the start of the week, you would not have been able to tell by the effort level of both teams.

Both the Tigers and Crusaders played with intensity and had their moments in Thursday’s Class 2A third place consolation game inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium, but it was visiting Shadyside that made a couple more shots down the stretch to fend off Central for a 47-39 victory.

The win is Shadyside’s third this season over the Crusaders, with all three being decided by 10 points or less.

“We’ve tried three different game plans against Shadyside, they are just one of those teams that have our number,” Central head coach Rocky Bragg said. “We just don’t match up well with them. They’re not real big and they’re young, but they play with a lot of determination. Our goal was to match their intensity and we did at times … they play a very aggressive defense, you don’t see press like that very often outside of the Ohio Valley.

“Overall, we have to be more of the aggressor and attack the bucket more. I’m happy with the effort to come back, but there are a lot of things we need to keep working on as we work towards sectionals.”

After falling in a 10-point hole at halftime, Central (11-10) had the margin down to two midway through the fourth quarter, but never got completely over the hump.

“We did a good job of holding them off,” Shadyside coach Serge Gentile said. “They out-hustled us at times in the second half and put a lot of pressure on us, but we were able to find a way to make enough plays to hang on. I’m happy for the girls to be able to find a way to close this game out.

“We were able to make a couple of big shots down the stretch. We were able to respond every time they made a run.

“We want to win any time we step on the floor. Whether it’s a third-place game, playing outside on the street or in the YMCA, competitors want to win no matter what game it is. These girls are competitors and want to win any time we are in the gym.”

After a close opening quarter, the Tigers (10-10) out-scored Central 10-2 in the second quarter to open the double-digit lead. Central came out flying to start the second half as Mary Rohde scored six-straight points to quickly cut into the margin.

After the Tigers recovered for a while, Central’s Mara Delaney knocked down a late third quarter triple to make it a four-point margin after three.

After the Crusaders had chipped the margin away down to two, Shadyside’s Cameron Kolvek drained a triple the other way.

Delaney hit another 3 for Central to again make it a two-point game, but the Crusaders missed a couple of would-be tying shots before the Tigers pushed the lead back out to eight.

Central, on a Shya Garcia 3 with just over a minute to go, cut the margin back to four, but the Tigers were able to make foul shots down the stretch to put things away.

Rohde had a big double-double for Central, tallying 11 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. Delaney hit three triples and netted a game-high 13 points to go with four boards. Aurie Hoover tallied seven rebounds and six assists for the Crusaders.

For the Tigers, Kaci Tsoras netted 12 points and Kolvek 10.

UP NEXT

Shadyside: Hosts Wellsville on Wednesday.

Central: Has a makeup game at Weir High Feb. 14 to close the regular season.