photo by: Kim North

Wheeling Park’s Jordan Beck-James (4) looks for a teammate to pass the ball to during Saturday morning’s OVAC WVU Medicine Class 5A Boys Basketball Championship game against Steubenville inside the ECO Center in St. Clairsville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — It’s been so long since Steubenville has won an OVAC boys’ basketball championship, the seniors were just starting elementary school. The year was 2014.

Saturday morning in the OVAC WVU Medicine Class 5A championship game, top-seeded Big Red (18-1) used a strong second quarter and an early burst in the third to pocket a coveted, 68-58, victory over No. 3 Wheeling Park (7-8) inside the ECO Center.

“I just told the seniors they were in first grade the last time we won an OVAC title. Cole (Bowers), Santino (Haney) and Landon (Bowers) were in first grade, kindergarten and pre-school. They’ve grown up seeing it and we’ve come close a couple of times, so it was nice to finally get a win,” Steubenville head coach Mike Haney said. “This is a memory they will never forget. These kids have been playing together since second grade and have good chemistry. They are all good teammates.”

Steubenville used a 9-0 run to snap a 19-all deadlock midway through the second quarter and, after a Patriots’ free throw, extended the surge with eight more markers for a 17-1 spurt that bumped the count to 36-17. They held a 36-22 lead at the half.

Cole Bowers scored 11 of his 17 points in the initial 16 minutes, including five during the pivotal stretch. Santino Haney and Jermaine Moore each had nine at the half.

Big Red netted the first 10 points of the third quarter. Haney had six of them as the lead ballooned to a game-high 22, 46-24, but Wheeling Park didn’t quit.

photo by: Kim North

Members of the Steubenville boys basketball team pose for a picture with the OVAC WVU Medicine Class 5A championship trophy following their 68-58 victory over Wheeling Park Saturday morning inside the ECO Center in St. Clairsville.

Behind the red-hot shooting of Josh Huffman and Kolten Whitmire – the senior duo combined for all but 10 of their team’s points – the Patriots outscored Big Red 34-32 in the second half, but the damage had already been done. Huffman finished with a game-best 31, which included four treys, while Whitmire added 17 on five triples – three coming in the third quarter.

“Josh has been shooting it pretty well of late,” Wheeling Park head coach Michael Jebbia said. “He did it again today. “Kolten got hot there for a stretch, but they (Steubenville) were tagging (1,000-point scorer) JD (Williams). I know he didn’t get a lot of clean looks.”

“Thank goodness we had that big run because they (Wheeling Park) didn’t miss many shots. The Huffman kid had nearly 30 points and Whitmire was also knocking them down,” Coach Haney said. “They kept cutting the lead back down to 10-12 points, so we were lucky to have that 17-1 run.”

“That’s what they do. They hit you with a spurt like that in a short amount of time,” Jebbia noted. “They are a good team. No doubt about it. Everyone knows (Santino) Haney makes them go, but I thought the (Cole) Bowers kid gave them some huge baskets, especially in the first half. I thought he made some tough shots.”

The veteran Wheeling Park head coach credited his team for never giving up.

“My kids kept battling. I’m proud of the way they kept playing,” Jebbia said. “In the first game at our place, we fell behind because we had 15 live-ball turnovers. Today we only had nine turnovers total.

“We cut it to single digits. Give our kids credit,” Jebbia added. “At our place the game got away from us in the fourth quarter, but today we kept playing hard and the shots were falling.”

In addition to Bowers’ 17, Steubenville had three other players in double digits. Haney led the way with 21, Moore added 18 and Tre’Von Wiggins had 10.

Steubenville led 32-25 off the glass, which included nine offensive boards that led to a 20-2 advantage in second-chance points and 42 points in the paint. Bowers capped his double-double with 10 rebounds and also charted a trio of assists. Haney contributed seven boards and four assists in earning game MVP honors.

Jay Bordas and Jordan Beck-James each had five rebounds for Wheeling Park.

Both teams are back in action Tuesday as Steubenville hosts Edison inside the Crimson Center, while Wheeling Park heads to John Jenkins Court in St. Clairsville to battle the Red Devils.