photo by: Kim North

St. Clairsville’s Griffin Straub (14) goes to the basket Wednesday night as Bellaire’s Raekwon Pettigrew (22) challenges him inside the ‘House of Champions.’ Straub had 20 points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots as the Red Devils prevailed, 67-53, for a regular season sweep of the Big Reds.

BELLAIRE – Bellaire and St. Clairsville played on even terms for three quarters Wednesday night. However, as everyone knows, basketball is a game of four quarters.

The visiting Red Devils held a 22-9 scoring advantage in the pivotal third quarter in earning a regular-season sweep of the Big Reds, 67-53, inside the ‘House of Champions.’ St. Clairsville made its season debut with an 80-44 rout in mid-December.

“Our goal coming down here today was to score one more point than they did,” St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said. “The weather this week kept a lot of teams from practicing and the game was dis-jointed there for a while. It was sloppy at times.”

Deadlocked at 26 with a little less than two minutes left in the second quarter, St. Clairsville (7-2) went on a 7-2 run to end the half as Griffin Straub and Tyson Pastor combined for five of the points for a 33-28 lead.

The Red Devils used an 8-0 start to the third quarter to build a 41-28 margin. The Big Reds (4-7) went nearly half of the quarter before scoring as Caleb Jewell ended the drought with 4:25 on the clock.

“The third quarter absolutely killed us,” veteran Bellaire head coach J.R. Battista noted. “We were getting stops on defense, but we couldn’t get enough of them. That is a testament to them. They’ve got a lot of firepower. They really do.”

Bellaire didn’t quit and pulled to within 10, 47-37, as Kole Swierkos netted six straight points, but Pastor scored five of St. Clairsville’s final seven points of the quarter for a 55-37 advantage.

The Big Reds started the final chapter on a 14-4 run that cut the deficit to 8, 59-51, at the midway point, but Straub scored the final eight points to seal the deal.

Pastor and Straub each scored 20 points while the 6-9 Straub also collected 18 rebounds and blocked four shots. Brady Schafer added 10 points.

“It’s no secret that those three are going to have to score for us to win,” Clifford said of his three-headed offensive monster. “We got (defensive) stops when we needed to. We didn’t play very well in the fourth quarter, but we’ll take this road win and move on to Friday night as fast as we can.”

Raekwon Pettigrew paced Bellaire with 16 points. Jewell finished with a dozen. Pettigrew completed his double-double with 10 rebounds.

“We kept battling,” Battista added. “The guys hung in there. Three years ago we went out there and beat them. We haven’t beat them since.”

St. Clairsville held a commanding, 38-28, advantage off the glass and charted one less turnover with nine.

The Red Devils return home Friday to host Belmont County rival Union Local. The varsity game will tip at 6 p.m. Bellaire hosts Cambridge on Friday and Shadyside a night later.