COLUMBUS — Big Red’s season to remember came to a close a couple rounds earlier than the Steubenville faithful had hoped Tuesday night.

Big Red saw its run end with an 80-48 defeat at the hands of Columbus Bishop Hartley in the Division III, Region 11 semifinals on the floor of the Taft Coliseum inside the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus.

Big Red’s fine season comes to a close with a fine mark of 21-4, the program’s highest win total in more than two decades, to go with the East/Southeast District championship, East District regular season No. 1 finish, OVAC runner up finish, first regional appearance in six years and passing the 1,500 all-time win mark.

“It was definitely a season to remember,” Big Red head coach Mike Haney said. “The most disappointing part of losing tonight is we don’t get to have practice with these guys tomorrow. These guys came to work hard every day. They deserved this run, they earned it.

“This year raises the bar for sure, Big Red basketball is back to the way Big Red basketball is meant to be played.”

In Tuesday night’s game, the now 20-5 Hawks got off to a fast start, making 3s on their first three possessions to open a 9-2 lead and never trailed.

Jakhi Calloway made triples on the first two Hartley possessions on his way to 12 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals. He was one of four Hawks in double figures.

Hartley pushed its lead to double digits the first time inside two minutes to go in the opening quarter and led 18-8 after one.

After the Hawks led by as many as 17 early in the second quarter, Big Red cut the margin back to single digits at eight, but the Hawks pushed back away to lead 37-19 at halftime.

From there, Hartley continued to push the lead out and pull away in the second half.

Carson Svetek netted and Caleb O’Neil each netted 16 for Hartley, while Marcus Hemphill also tallied 12. Jaden Calloway had nine to go with a game-high eight assists and six boards.

Big Red, which has used strong defense to create its offense all season, just never seemed to get either aspect going fully.

Big Red shot just 50 percent overall and 19 percent from beyond the arc, while the Hawks shots 59 percent and 45 percent from 3. Steubenville only was able to force the Hawks into four turnovers.

“We didn’t come out very good, we missed our shots and they made their shots,” Haney said. “We were able to overcome that all year, we overcame a bad quarter or a half quarter most of the year, but (Tuesday) it just seemed like we never got going. We didn’t play our best ball.

“It wasn’t a lack of effort, the guys played hard, the shots just didn’t fall. We always say good defense leads to good offense and we didn’t turn them over, and with not getting turnovers our offense never seemed to be able to get going.”

Senior Aiden Davis, who will put on a basketball uniform for West Liberty next year, ended his stellar high school career with a game-high 18 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Will Taylor, another of Big Red’s four seniors, netted 15 points, while Tre Wiggins and Cole Bowers each netted five.

Along with Davis and Taylor, Big Red will also graduate Sam Boni and Maddox Gulan.

“We’re going to miss our four seniors, they’re going to be hard guys to replace,” Haney said. “They did a great job for us. We thank them for everything they did for Big Red basketball.”

They will have a strong contingent coming back, including three of the starting five, and bar for Big Red basketball has been raised.

“The guys coming back learned a lot from the seniors and it will be there turn to hopefully pick up where we left off,” Haney said. “The bar has been set high. These underclassmen are a good group, I’ve been coaching a lot of them since they were in third grade and in travel ball and stuff like that, a lot of them have been our ball boys since they were young. They understand the tradition and what Big Red basketball is all about.”