photo by: Andrew Grimm

Steubenville’s Nylah McShan drives to the basket with John Marshall’s Masyn Inclan defending Wednesday inside the Crimson Center.

STEUBENVILLE — After passing its biggest test yet with flying colors, the Big Red girls basketball team’s best start since 2012 rolls on.

Steubenville used a big second quarter run to pull away from OVAC Class 5A foe John Marshall in a key early season meeting and did not look back, rolling to a 67-40 victory inside the Crimson Center Wednesday night.

The victory improved Big Red to 7-0 for the first time since an 8-0 start some 13 years ago.

“That’s a big win, we knew that this was going to be a test,” Big Red head coach Angie Forte said. “JM is a strong program, a strong team with really talented players who are well-coached. It’s exciting to see this group of girls have a performance like that against a team like that.”

After trailing 9-8 after one quarter and some early back and forth buckets in the second quarter, Big Red scored 10 straight. A JM timeout did not slow the run as it swelled to 22-3 to end the first half with Big Red up 34-17.

Big Red then netted the first eight points of the third quarter to make it a 30-3 run.

“We stepped up defensively, we had a couple kids in foul trouble and switched to a 2-3 zone … our 2-3 zone is just as aggressive as our man and can cause a lot of disruption,” Forte said. “We executed really well. We kept them from getting open shots and that’s a good team, they can shoot the ball … we started turning some of those missed shots, long rebounds and turnovers into transition points the other way.”

Steubenville forced the Monarchs (3-2) into 21 turnovers in the game, 12 in the first half, and finished with a 30-16 advantage rebounding.

“They were just the more physical team from start to finish,” JM head coach Brock Melko said. “That manifested itself the most when we had the ball. They switched to zone and we just threw it right to them. I felt dumb at halftime saying that I didn’t think our defense was playing that bad when we had given up 34 points, but I think the majority of it was just us throwing them the ball and giving them layups. We don’t give ourselves a chance when we do that.

“The two stories were their physicality hurting us and us turning the ball over killing us.”

Nylah McShan had another big night for Big Red, and did so with an all-around performance of a game-high 27 points to go with five rebounds, five steals, three assists and a block.

“She has stepped her game up several notches from last year,” Forte said. “Her ball distribution has turned the corner, she’s finding her teammates when the double teams come. She’s always been a good defender, but she’s become a great defender. She’s become a complete player and she does it in every aspect.”

As has been the case on the good start for Big Red, it wasn’t just McShan as Phynyx Fleming tallied 14 points, including a pair of 3s on the big run, and pulled down eight nine rebounds to go with three assists, two steals and two blocks. Mikah Taylor netted 11 points with six steals, four assists and three boards, while Lucy Saccoccia tallied five points, a team-high five assists, three steals and four rebounds.

“We talk about a 1-2 punch between (McShan and Fleming), a lot of teams have one good post player, having two of them makes it difficult on teams,” Forte said. “We’re blessed to have both of them. Our team chemistry is growing.

“It’s great to have a player that averages more than 20 a game, but to have a supporting cast around them where on any given night a second kid can score just as many and we can have three or four in double digits is really something special.”

John Marshall, which went on a little bit of a run to cut the deficit to 18 late in the third but trailed by as many as 29 in the fourth, was led by 17 points and three rebounds from Rilee Storm and 10 points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists from Kalyn Reese.

UP NEXT

John Marshall: Travels to Grafton on Saturday afternoon.

Big Red: Hosts city rival Catholic Central in the early game of the annual Watt/Nese Classic on Saturday.