Photo by Kim North Steubenville’s Makayla Abram secures a rebound in Wednesday’s game against St. Clairsville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Through the first 21 games of the season, Jeff Lombardo hadn’t seen his Steubenville girls’ basketball team play a complete 32 minutes.

Big Red (13-9) picked a great time to put together an all-around game as the 10th seeds knocked off No. 7 St. Clairsville, 44-30, Wednesday night in a Division II sectional tournament lid-lifter on John Jenkins Court.

“We talked with the girls about how, as a team, we haven’t put together a full 32 minutes this year,” Lombardo said. “(Wednesday), for the first time all season, it finally felt like we got a little bit better with each quarter.”

Steubenville shook off some shaky ballhandling in the first half when it committed 10 of its 16 turnovers to take a 21-12 advantage into the lockerroom at halftime. That was much in do to the Red Devils inability to make shots. They were a frigid 4-for-20 (20 percent) in the first half.

“They were too strong and physical. With two starters out it was tough, but we knew that going in,” St. Clairsville coach Stacey Agnew said of the absence of Katie Strama (knee) and Keri Klinkoski (discipline). “We played hard. We played as hard as we could play. They pounded the ball inside and we couldn’t match up with them.”

Steubenville was relentless on defense, forcing 15 turnovers and holding St. Clairsville to a very cool 24 percent (11-45) from the floor.

“We didn’t have more than a 45-second stretch when we didn’t play real good basketball,” Lombardo said. “Our mistakes were here-and-there, but we got over it and made plays. We responded well.

“They are a really good offensive team and we’ve struggled guarding them in the past. Unfortunately, they had a couple of players out, but I’m still proud of my girls for holding them to 30 points which is tough to do in St. Clairsville. My girls really took pride in guarding, and more importantly, they also took pride in holding them to one shot on most occasions.

“That was one of our goals coming in to control the offensive and defensive glass. We did a good job of doing that.”

Junior center Makayla Abram was a force on the boards where she pulled down a game-high 14 as the visitors held a commanding, 44-24, margin. Elexis Martin added seven off the bench.

Big Red’s Madison Fields led all scorers in the contest with 16 points, with 10 coming after halftime and six of those to start the fourth quarter. Leah Ferguson added seven points and Abram had six.

Senior Rileigh Simpson had nine points and a like number of rebounds to pace St. Clairsville. Freshmen Shae Brookover and Alexis Thoburn evenly divided 12.

“We have come a long way in four years. We’ve played in two OVAC championship games in three years” Agnew said. “This group has brought us back. I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

Steubenville will now host No. 6 River View which defeated No. 11 Indian Valley, 55-39, (Tuesday). That contest is set for 7 p.m. Saturday.